Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful day celebrating the resurrection of Christ! We did, although the weather sure was cold! Our church did not have a sunrise service, so we just went at the regular time (like we could have made a sunrise service even if they did have one, LOL). It was a wonderful service--we are so enjoying this new church and the pastor. He didn't do a specific "Easter" sermon, but he is preaching through Ephesians, and this week he covered Eph. 1: 15-23, which talks about the mighty power of God, which was used when raising Christ from the dead, so it fit the Easter theme.

I am glad that clothes are not the focus of my Easter, as I had all sorts of troubles yesterday! Even though it was cold, I wore a short-sleeved dress, since, well, I am always hot, LOL. This dress is one I have had since I was pregnant with Luke and had to pin "major' on Bob, but it's a really pretty maroon one. As is typical, I got dressed right before we walked out the door (lessens the chance that any food particles will make their way onto my clothes, you know), and as I walked downstairs, I realized that possibly the pregnancy with Luke was when I bought the pair of maternity hose I was wearing as well. No time to change, but I shortly realized that . . . the hose were too small, to put it frankly, for my burgeoning belly. I could not keep them from rolling down under my belly, and I was afraid to see just how far down they would roll! When we got to church, I told Bob I needed to use the restroom, where I just took the darn things off. Then the problem became my shoes. They fit alright with hose on, but once I took the hose off, it became obvious that, well, they were a little too small too for my evidently swollen feet. (I'm going with "swollen" because my feet got a size bigger when I was pregnant with Nathan, but never grew anymore, so SURELY they aren't going to start growing again in pregnancy #6, right?!) So I hobbled back into the service and took my shoes off for the remainder. As we stood for the last song, I struggled with getting them back on. Finally I succeeded, but at a great cost! I could hardly walk! As soon as I got into the car, I took them off and didn't even wear them into the house! Grr! I greatly dislike these last few weeks, where nothing feels comfortable!

As soon as I got changed and got some things together, we headed over to the L's house for Easter dinner. The other 3 families in our Bible study were there too, as well as 2 other families with whom we have been stationed before, and the parents of one of them. There were 34 of us, and we had a delicious potluck feast. I love, absolutely LOVE, being able to enjoy lots of delicious food while only making a few things! I brought a fruit salad, a spinach salad, a potato dish, and ginger snaps. We also had a ham, pork roast, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, jello salad, spinach bread, green bean casserole, corn pudding, french toast casserole, and plenty of other desserts. I was so stuffed I could hardly move! Anna was very cooperative--I fed her as soon as we got there, and she went down for a nap not long after we started eating. She slept until close to 5:00, even going back to sleep after being rudely awakened by little boys light-saber-fighting and running into her door! So I had a whole afternoon of visiting with grownups. Ahhh. It was so very, very nice.

I think it was the perfect celebration of Easter. Because of Christ triumphing over sin and the grave, we will be spending eternity together, since we are all believers. What better way to celebrate that than starting the party down here on Earth?! We were celebrating with family! Praise the Lord--He is risen!

Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ . . . Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens wih God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are becoming built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2: 12-13, 19-22