I update this post year by year as a chronicle of our family's growth and God's grace. This was our 17th annual visit to the pumpkin farm. These pics serve as a flip book of sorts. Thumbed rapidly, our boys grow up before our very eyes.
More and more I've come to believe it and know it:
Changing times, changeless God.
***
Autumn bliss is steeped in memories and traditions. This is the pumpkin farm where our boys grew up. This is the pumpkin farm we'll visit this weekend and remember the little guys who once excitedly fed the goats; the guys who eagerly pulled around little red wagons filled with a few mini pumpkins and gourds. Now these guys are not so little. Our visit isn't so much about the animals. Or the pumpkins. Or even the corn maze. It's about nostalgia. Security. Creating new memories. It's about looking back and seeing how God has been faithful through these years. And it's about giving thanks for all that He's doing in the here and now.
1998 ~ This was the day we announced that we were expecting again!
1999 ~ Our first visit as a family of five!
2000
2001 ~ This was only one month after 9/11. I welcomed the feelings of "normalcy" created by this visit.
2002
2003
2004 ~ Notice the cowboy theme that endured all these years? :)
2005 ~ This was only days before my husband and I left for Papua New Guinea. I was filled with a lot of conflicting emotions.
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011 ~ This is my idea of autumn bliss :)
2012 ~ While our son couldn't be there, we had the joy of being able to introduce our exchange student to the pumpkin farm. [freezing cold, changing times, still safely in God's grip]
2013 ~ Things are different, God is still good. [slipped and laughed our way through the mud in the corn maze]
2014 ~ Ryan's last year of high school. Seeking to embrace and invest each moment, ordinary and extraordinary alike. All is grace.
"I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of Your righteousness, Yours alone. O God, from my youth You have taught me,and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs,O God, do not forsake me,until I proclaim your might to another generation, Your power to all those who come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things,O God, who is like You?" Psalm 71:14-19
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