blessing.

Once upon a time, perhaps a year or two ago, I had a slight desire. It was for something that was very handy, and shiny, and nice. Yet it was not necessary, and I found that I had lived all my life [until that point of realizing my desire] without it; therefore I decided that I ought to be able to get along quite nicely without it. Besides, I couldn't really afford it.

Time went on. I applied my hand to the proverbial plow, and earned an honest living. Yet I still found little justification for making the aforementioned purchase; it was still desirable, yet remained unnecessary and rather frivolous. Such an amount could do much greater good elsewhere. No sleep was lost over this decision.

Fast forward to this evening. Following a nice family dinner and my brother's birthday celebration, I spy a certain young nephew of mine running toward me with a small, shiny object in his hand. He drops it at or around my feet, and I stoop to pick it up. My mind tells me that he should not have this sort of shiny object, then moves to bewilderment as to where such an object might have been procured by his 20-month-old hand; meanwhile, my mouth is asking him the same sort of question. Next I see my name on the screen, and hear a voice telling me, "It's yours, Annie!" 

My mind at this point is thinking several things, such as "I don't have one," "Whose is this?," and "It's not my birthday, it's Tyler's!"

After a few such seconds of such perplexity, the realization sunk in.

I almost cried.

My three brothers, plus Mary and Bryce, pitched in together to get me the very thing I supposed I would never have.

Currently feeling: grateful, undeserving, blessed, amazed, and still somewhat bewildered.

Thanks family. I love you.

And so, the Lord reminded me in a very tangible way of a particular promise in His Word which I read this very morning:

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. -Psalm 37:4

For in so doing, we shall all live happily [and contentedly] ever after.

The End.

dear parents.

happy anniversary! 28 years is a really long time!

and happy mother's day, mom!

love,ann.

departure.

my time here is quickly coming to an end, and germany looms ever closer on the horizon! it is only 10.5 days until i leave my home and homeland for 5 months, and walk down this new [yet rather familiar] path. i am supremely excited to return to my dear-beloved siegen. the very first day i arrived in germany, in summer 2006, i knew that i'd love to return, not only to graduate [which was accomplished by His grace alone!], but also to serve on staff as an intern. i'm going to be a missionary! truly, as we delight ourselves in the Lord, He fulfills the desires of our hearts. it will be lovely to be reunited with the old friends, and build friendships with the new.

one week from today will be my last day at our dear old calvary chapel here. i'll miss it, truly. the Lord does indeed know what is best for His children, for there is no greater blessing than to be in fellowship with other believers. i'm not particularly close with any of them, but it is still an honor and a privilege to be a part of that Body, and to lead them in worship. i will especially miss playing worship with my younger brother. he is a phenomenal self-taught drummer, and in the past year has become one of the best cajon players i've heard [and i lean towards the fastidious end of the spectrum concerning drummers]. i'll also dearly miss my dad, who is my pastor, my boss, and my friend, to mention a few [in no particular order]. my mother, too, has become a dearer friend than ever in these months at home. what grace she's shown me! she is a wonderful woman of God, and we definitely sharpen each other as somewhat differing pieces of iron at times! :) my youngest brother- what a guy. i love him to pieces. his guitar skills blow mine to bits. [i shall also greatly miss my oldest brother, sis-in-law, and dear little nephew! i'm sad to miss even a day of his growth and Becoming of a Little Man]

in exactly three weeks i will turn twenty-two. it will be my first birthday spent away from the company of my family. but is it not true that when we seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto us- by the one Good Father, who loves to give good gifts to His children? oh, He is good.

So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time--houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions--and in the age to come, eternal life." Matthew 10:29-30

For this reason, I also suffer these things [not that it's huge suffering, but it is a slight deprivation on behalf of the Lord's calling!]; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 2 Timothy 1:12

He is good.
here's to home! and here's to the future!

ping pong quick fix!

my little bro and i made a quick video today when we found that this amazing tactic actually works.
perfect remedy for dented ping pong balls.

christmas!

pictures of our lovely snowy day can be viewed here!

the boys.

snowed out.

well, my nephew came over yesterday to spend the night while his mum+dad went to minneapolis for a meeting type thing.
it's been great. he slept just fine last night, once he snuggled in tight between grandpa and grandma.

well, it snowed all day today in minneapolis. brother still endeavoured to drive home, much to the chagrin of his beloved copilot.
so we kept on playing as they homeward crept slowly along through the utter whiteness.

then they closed the roads.

meanwhile the snow here peacefully falls outside in the splendour of stillness,
and inside, the child pitifully screams his sleepy little head off.

it's a not-so-silent night.

well, today was supposed to include 6+ hours in the backseat of a car with two growing brothers, the annual swanson family reunion [at which there is not one swanson in attendance], featuring traditional scandinavian food, such as lefse, lutefisk, and pickled herring [sadly, this in no way resembles swedish fish], as well as an overabundance of christmas cookies. but all of those plans changed by the weatherman's two little words...

SNOW STORM!!!!!!!!!!

well, actually it was three big words: Winter Weather Advisory. but we all knew what he was getting at.

it's been snowing all day, so beautifully. how perfect, the first day of december is our first real snowstorm. i'd say we've gotten at least 6 inches, maybe more, of beautiful glistening fluffy white powder. ah! so lovely.

this change in scenery from brown to white also changed our plans from "party!" to "clean!".

all five us of have been cleaning, organizing, sorting, and rearranging since breakfast. and i must say, as pop snowblows the sidewalks outside at 9.37pm, it's been a busy day- but a very productive one. we all [meaning we three kinder] expected to sit around and poke a fire, watch the disney cartoon Robin Hood, drink hot chocolate, go for a few romps in the great white outdoors.. and instead, worked our little tails off. but it's quite satisfying at the end of a hard day's work to see the basement looking the best it has in years, and for me personally to see the back AND the floor of my closet!! [understand that "closet" in my case is synonymous with "cave," as it is narrow, deep, and dark. but today! it saw the light.]

so maybe tomorrow we'll play in the snow and watch Robin Hood. until then, we've got to figure out what to do with all that herring in the fridge..

bouquets of sharpened pencils.

the menfolk of the house have gone a-hunting, so it leaves mum and i to fend for ourselves.
we ate hot fudge sundaes along with our dinner, worked on various projects including hemming, and watched You've Got Mail.
'twas quite nice, truly.

ak and tm.

beautiful.

grandma. mary. bryce.