A Weekend of Firsts

This was a wonderful and exciting week filled with many important milestones. With so much crammed into one weekend, I still feel like my head is spinning. I only hope I took enough pictures to help me remember it all later on.

First, Emma's first birthday was on Saturday and therefore, so was her very first birthday party! Daddy fixed his famous "RobbyQ" with all the fixins to accompany the all important First Birthday Cake. The weather was not ideal for swimming so we kept the party indoors, but it was all good. Great food + great friends= good times!

Then, Sunday was Robby's very first Fathers' Day. It was kind of hard to put an emotional finger on the feelings he was having about the whole thing because of the whirlwind surrounding the birthday festivities. Also, between the two of us, we have lost four fathers and it makes the day kind of bittersweet. I know our dads would have just loved little Emma and I'm pretty sure she would have cracked up at Virgil's jokes, she would have loved Tom's adventurous stories, she would have coveted a spot in Jim's big ole arms for a game of patty cake and more than likely would have melted A.O.'s heart.

I have so many wonderful memories of times spent with my grandfather. Fishing, farming, hunting, and other fun outdoorsy stuff. He probably thought I wasn't paying much attention, but I was. Sure, I may have been chasing grasshoppers or picking flowers at the time, but that doesn't mean I wasn't storing it all away in my "pre-blog" brain.

I wish that Emma had those same opportunities. Her life is going to be a lot different than her parents. We both grew up in very small towns in single-parent households with very little money. She's going to have a lot more to choose from and her childhood experience is going to be so foreign to her old fogey folks. Our continued prayer is that we equip her with the tools she needs to help her navigate the craziness that is life. If she has only one thing-- the Holy Spirit of the Lord -- then we will be able to rest in the assurance that she has a wise counselor with her at all times. But that is the one thing that we cannot give to her. That is one thing that she can only accept for herself. It's a free gift of salvation from the One who paid the highest price for it. What we can do is to pray for her and to do our best to guide her.

Another huge first for this weekend is that Emma took her first steps-- On Father's Day!

I'm convinced she was waiting just for the occasion. What a wonderful gift, don't you think? She was so proud of herself too. She took two wobbly steps and then crashed safely to her diapered behind. After a brief second of shock, the applause erupted all around and lasted a good minute, I'm sure. It was hard to tell who was clapping the loudest or smiling the widest.

God is so good!