Thankful List for March:
"Sometimes when we are called to obey, the fear does not subside and we are expected to move against the fear, one must choose to do it afraid."  -Elisabeth Elliot

And a few random things that have nothing to do with adoption:
-more snow
-lots of dancing in the living room and kitchen

-Party for the nations with swing dancing and karaoke
-a little boy who asked to wash windows

-Libby started playing soccer.  Her favorite things about it: “break times, running through the hand tunnels, and getting high fives.”
-Kasi, the White family, Beca, and Margit all coming to soccer games during the month
-kids making “rain soup”
-Tucker's twin day at school.
-“Mother/Son Date Knight” with Tucker at Chick fil A

-Beach Reach mission trip was a success.  Thankful for all 11 of our students who went.  Ben, David, and Ashley who led them.
-Spring break: kids creativity, Doley’s and Sharp’s for watching our kids two days, watching Cinderella with the Whites and the Doleys, lunch with the Wither’s, Dani and Tristen taking kids to lunch on Friday, playdate with the Hyde’s, hotel trip for swimming and relaxing.
-Celebrating 5 years with our creative, independent, passionate, imaginative Libby.

-our tulips returned!
-successful painting party fundraiser for our trip to Uganda
-sunshine
-Lenten lights
-Carly watching the kids while I sewed

A row of tulips bloomed this week, fresh and bright right outside our back window. In the fall three and a half years ago my father-in-law bent low into our Texas dirt and pushed bulbs into the ground and said “wait and see.” This seemingly simple thing of plants springing up out of the ground has given us endless amounts of joy. Our youngest checks on “her flowers” regularly, and our oldest gives us daily reports of how they are doing. And for three years winter has given way to spring, and we have waited in anticipation and wondered if they would come back this year. They have not disappointed us yet. Each spring they have made their triumphant return out of the dirt, and each spring they’ve been met with shouts of excitement.

Last Sunday, I picked our five-year-old up from Sunday school, all smiles and hugs and waving a palm branch.  On the way to the sanctuary, we stop to show the branch to every one we pass and for her to tell them, “the people shouted ‘Hosanna!’ as Jesus rode into the city.” I think about our Easter season as we walk: we’ve done our Lenten Lights this year but most of our other plans have been lost in the busyness of this season. I feel like I keep failing at Easter.

And I am back sitting in the church pew three years ago. It’s Palm Sunday, and a wave of regret hits me as I realize our kids probably have no idea what Easter is about or that it was even coming. Easter had totally slipped up on me. 

We had spent December journeying through Advent season as a family. We had begun the process of making sure our words about the meaning of this season lined up with what our actions were communicating to our kids. Using our time intentionally, our family Bible times were sweet, the way we began to approach gift-giving was meaningful, and the holidays had become refreshing instead of exhausting. We truly found ourselves celebrating and anticipating the coming of Christ.  

But the seasons had turned from frosty cold to the gentle, warm winds of spring, and I found myself sitting in church a week before Easter having not given it a second thought. The death and resurrection of our Messiah (which meant LIFE for me), whose birth we had so eagerly celebrated and decorated for months before, had been forgotten. I wanted to weep.

Instead, I went home and began to research. I found Noel Piper’s book Treasuring God in our Traditions and promptly ordered it so I could do better next year. (It has since become a staple reference book for our family, and I’ve recommended it a thousand times over). I did the best I could to work with my then-four-year-old (and let our 18-month-old over hear) to prepare him for what this Holy week truly meant.

We live in a Christmas-obsessed culture, and I love Christmas myself. Christmas has become something we think about for months ahead of time—as we see rows upon rows of decorations in store, as we spend hours attending parties, as we deliver goodies and wrap gifts, and as every song on the radio proclaims what season it is and every yard in our neighborhood reflects it. It is impossible to forget. But our celebration of our Messiah’s birth would all be meaningless if we did not have our Messiah's triumph over death to celebrate. This season of Easter … it is a holy season, a season of great mourning that leads to one of great of dancing. And while it is a much more difficult task to explain to our children the depth of heaviness and hope and life that the season of Easter brings, it is an important and worthy task.  

So this is for you and for me (who needs the reminder even this year) that we should not leave the Easter lessons for our children to hear only in church. And because if you are like I was three years ago, when I sat in church realizing I needed to do Easter differently but not knowing where to start, here are some ideas and resources for you:

-Create a playlist of “Easter” music on your phone, iPad, or computer so you can fill your home and car with songs that make you reflect on the season.

-Use Resurrection Eggs with your kids. (You can buy them already made or make them on your own).

-Print Easter coloring pages from your computer and talk about the pages as you color them with your kids or when they bring them to you to show off their work.

-Stock up on Easter books at the library, order them online, or purchase them at a bookstore for the time you spend reading with your kids.

-Find age-appropriate movies about the death and resurrection of Jesus to watch as a family.

-Create an Easter Mountain (found in Treasuring God in our Traditions).

-At Christmas, we (like many) use candles in an advent wreath to mark the passing time toward Jesus’ birth. With each passing week, we light a new candle, and as we get closer to Christ’s birth, the lights get brighter in growing anticipation. At Easter, we use this same concept with Lenten lights; only this time as we approach Easter, we blow out one candle every week so that our lights grow dimmer as we approach Jesus’ death. On Easter morning, they are all lit in joyful celebration of our Savior’s resurrection. If you need to do a shorter version, you can use this same concept during Holy Week … each day blowing out one candle until Good Friday when all goes dark. Desiring God ministries has a “Lenten Lights” devotional guide that we go by but adapt to the appropriate levels for our children. There is just something about lighting candles with kids during family worship time that leads to greater participation and (sometimes) better listening ears.

 -Make resurrection rolls with your kids.

-Wake up earlier than your kids Easter morning and make this morning a true celebration with joyful music and lit candles and special food. This celebration can continue as you drive to church and anticipate together the celebration that you will experience with the body of Christ.

-Very often churches have a special emphasis/activities in the months or weeks leading up to Easter. Don’t leave your kids out of this but figure out a way for them to participate. Our church is currently encouraging its members to stop and pray for three non-believers every day leading up to Easter at 3:33. Since I am usually with my kids at this time everyday the three of us will sit together on the couch or pray in the car. I have loved sensing their excitement and eagerness to pray for others (even as I include them in my prayers for salvation), and I am so thankful that I decided to include them in this. If your church does a special offering emphasis, let them be a part of the giving too. 

-Simply talk to them repeatedly about what Easter is and try as best you can to use words they can understand. Let them ask questions. Our five-year-old announced to me on Tuesday that she couldn't wait to see Jesus at church on Sunday. She was pretty excited because she was certain that she was going to be able to see and touch Him. I had to think carefully about what she’d heard that led her to believe this and then be careful with my words as I explained that He would not be there in person but there was still much to celebrate.

-Check out these resources:  Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper, “Lenten Lights” by Desiring God Ministries, The Wonder of Easter by Ed Drew, Mission Accomplished: A Two-Week Family Easter Devotional by Scott James, Why Easter? by Barbara Reaoch, and A Sense of the Resurrection: An Easter Experience for Families by Amanda White, who also wrote The Truth in the Tinsel. 

-Grant yourself some grace.  Pointing our children to the Gospel does not need to be exhausting and guilt ridden but should be refreshing and life affirming, for them and for us.  Just the simple daily act of speaking truth into our childrens' hearts is the profound act of offering life to them.

The tulips keep coming back year after year despite our lack of care for them, this fresh grace springing up out of dirt again.  And I am thankful for the gentle reminder that they are in this season. Easter tells me that I don’t deserve anything that matters but have been given everything that does. What a wonderful gift to tell my children about:  
                                          Christ the Lord is risen today! Hallelujah!