Easter for me...

Without a true church "home" this year, I wasn't sure what Easter would look like for me or for us as a family. It turned out to be the best Easter I have experienced in a long time--maybe ever.

I was jogging the other week and I swear God told me (not in an audible voice, but nonetheless, I "heard" Him) to invite this single mom I work with, Rhoda, and her daughter. I had heard a lot about Rhoda's sister, who was also a single mom to 3 kids, and decided to invite her as well. To my delight, they were all able to come, and here are some snippets of our Easter "experience:


1) Life is all about perspective. Rhoda's sister, whose name is Rachel Sr. (not to be confused with her daughter, 4 year old Rachel Jr.), stood in our back yard and exclaimed over and over how lucky we are to have such a nice view. By "view", she meant all the backs of houses that we can see. We hate our "view," but to her, it was beautiful.

2) The most precious food item I have ever received is a squashed loaf of old bread by the slice. Rachel Sr. brought it, and she couldn't have been more sincere and generous to offer it. For her, that bread represented a lot of meals. I felt almost sinful accepting it, but for fear of offending, I graciously thanked her (for bread! To her, it was surely manna...)

3) Rachel Jr. throwing up on our porch and my precious husband cleaning it up.

4) The sounds of 10 kids playing in our back yard, jumping on our trampoline, and searching for eggs...is wonderful.

5)Spending 3 days at various stages making a lemon curd mousse cake for dessert was well worth the time, energy, and dirty dishes.

Yesterday was meaningful to me because it was about something bigger than myself. Rather than look at having people over as exhausting and effort, it was a gift to me.

When everyone was leaving, Rachel Sr. jumped out of her car again to give me another hug. It was a very childlike, innocent, gesture as she was running down the street, boobs a flyin', to thank me one more time. As she hugged me, she gestured towards Dan and said, "I hope God sends me a man like that. With extra kids and all" (referring to my step children, Tyler and Madison).

Though her perspective into our family was only for 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon, it felt like a long over due refreshment for my spirit.