The gift shop was really neat and gave me some great ideas for books to buy. I’d rather get them cheaper off of amazon.com but it was great to be able to look through all of them. There is some wonderful gift ideas and art… i’ll have to remember that for the holidays. Their kids section was amazing! So many books I have not seen before, diff. bibles and gift ideas. Mom bought River his fave LarryBoy movie he has been renting from netflix. He was quite happy over that!

Here are a few pictures from out trip.

Here is a picture of Elian just born and one of him this morning being held by his grandma who is visiting.

What is biblical forgiveness?

Forgiveness is unconditional. We don’t earn it; we don’t deserve it; we can’t bargain for it. Forgiveness is not based on a promise to never do it again. We offer forgiveness to somebody, whether that person asks for it or not.

When somebody says, “I will forgive you if…,” that’s not forgiveness; that’s bargaining. When Jesus stretched out his hands on the cross and said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34), he took the initiative, not waiting for us to first clean up our lives.

Forgiveness doesn’t minimize the offense. It actually cheapens forgiveness when somebody comes and asks for your forgiveness and you say, “It’s no big deal. It really didn’t hurt. It’s okay. It didn’t really bother me.” If it wasn’t a big deal, you wouldn’t need forgiveness, and you wouldn’t need to offer it. If it really requires forgiveness then you should not minimize it when somebody asks you for forgiveness.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean the relationship resumes without change. The Bible teaches three things that are essential to resume a relationship that has been broken: repentance, restitution, and rebuilding trust.

You have to be genuinely repentant and truly saddened about what you did. That’s not just saying a quick, “I’m sorry.” It means heart-fully and meaningfully saying, “I was wrong. Please forgive me.”

Sometimes forgiveness should be accompanied with some sort of physical or material restitution. If I came over to your house and burned it down, it wouldn’t be enough for me to go, “Oops! I’m sorry.” I’d need to assume that debt because I destroyed your house.

When it comes to rebuilding trust, it may take a long, long time. Forgiveness is instant, but trust is something that’s only rebuilt over a period of time. It must be re-earned.

Forgiveness isn’t forgetting what’s happened. You’ve heard this phrase over and over: forgive and forget, forgive and forget. There’s only one problem with it – it’s really difficult to forget a hurt that’s been in your life. It’s like when you go on a diet; you think about food all the time. You think about it more than when you’re not on a diet. The only way you can forget something is to actually refocus on something else.

And that is focusing on how God takes the bad and works it out “for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose …” (Romans 8:28, NLT).

Okay… wow! First of all, Elian is 4 1/2 months old now and is past the 11 pound mark! He is OFF OXYGEN! Elian is doing so increadibly well. We had a few months where he was having BHS (Breath holding spells). Some preemies do this and some children do it also, usually up to school age. He would cry and hold his breath until he turned blue and would lose conscienceness. When he lost conscienceness he would start breathing again and be hazed for a bit before he would act normal again. Very scary! It was also hard to leave him in nursery at church since there was that fear that an ambulence would be called when in reality he just neded to snap out of it on his own. But… he has outgrown it! No more BHS for Eli! He is getting chubbier by the day and holds his hea up so well. He can sit in his bumbo for 15 minutes before getting cranky from holding his big noggin up.

River is starting kindergarten this fall and is very excited! He goes 5 days a week for 1/2 a day. He knows kids in his class from church and is just beside himself waiting for the first day of school. His 6th birthday is coming up and we are trying to figure out what we are going to do. I am thinking of a backyard BBQ since we now have the backyard landscaped.

Abigail is doing well. She went to get her first haircut this past Monday and she did great! She has a long shoulder skimming bob. I just wanted it evened up and still long enough that her natural curls could bounce up. She also had her bangs trimmed up.

David is headed back to class this Sept., he is halfway done with his Masters and I could not be more proud of him. He has worked so hard! His mom is coming next week for a trip to visit us and she said for David and I to take a night away, so he and I are going to a bed and breakfast up in the mountains and are just going to enjoy ourselves by going out to dinner, enjoying the in room hot tub and getting some sleeeeeep! (much needed sleep) LOL.

I have lots of pictures to upload and am going to be doing that tonight, but for now, here is one to give you a sneak peek!

Abigail, Elian and River

I am doing great also. I have felt pretty good since I hit one week post partum. I felt at one or one and a half weeks how I felt after the c-section with Abi at 3 1/2 to 4 weeks. I healed so much faster this time around and it is nice! My father in law came out the day I left the hospital and stayed for 9 days and my mother in law came out 2 days before he left to overlap their trips and spend a good full day together and now she’s here for a week. It’s been nice to be able to eat and go take a nap when the kids do, not have to get up right when they do since mom/dad is here to get them up and play with them. I have been on a great breast pumping schedule since they have been here and I can go upstairs and pump whenever I need to.

So all in all this has been a great week, we praise God for all he has blessed us with and all the great things He is doing. We are so very blessed with this little boy, our other children who are being great helpers, our family and friends that have been so incredibly supportive… And of course, we still appriciate all the prayers being said for us and our little guy. We know they are being heard!!!

I have to resize pictures to upload them, but need to get ready to go to the hospital here soon to visit wih Eli, so check back in a few hours!