Summer Afternoon

"Summer afternoon--summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." - Henry James

Well, summer is here. And while it is considerably less hot here than my summers in Arkansas, the sunshine and warmth are welcome guests. These days are passing lazily--swim lessons, Bible study, play dates, front-yard sprinkler adventures, endless trips to Chick-fil-A and the park and the library.

These boys are eating it up. Cheeks red. Hair matted with sweat. Freckles bursting and blooming across pinch-able, kissable cheeks. Desperate for naps in the quiet afternoons.

What a difference a year can make.

Last summer, I was stressed. I was scared. I was insecure. I knew God knew what He was doing; I just didn't know what I was doing.

And this summer, peace.

In the form of static in hair, goofy faces, and worms at dinner.

Do you know what that cutie pie told me when I asked him why he was bringing a worm to the dinner table? "Mom, I have to save him from being eaten by a snake!"

Where do they come up with these things!?

I will be posting soon--because I genuinely believe it deserves a post to itself--about the fact that the boys and I have been here for nearly a year. But my thoughts right now are that I know this is where God wants us. We've been so blessed here. We've already made so many memories here. We're blooming in a new way. I'm finding parenting to be more challenging and more rewarding than I ever could have imagined {it's both, mind you--both}. I'm finding residency to be not at all what I'd heard it would be--but a time of growth, a time of excitement, a time and space for God to show me what I can do and what I cannot do.

We're here, at the beginning of summer. "Summer afternoon"--beautiful words with these boys.