In appreciation of...

There is something to be said for spring.

Our front door is open, inviting the fresh clean air to come inside. Our house has been sealed up over the winter, keeping our little ones warm. Who knows how "aged" the air inside was? Today, it is feels new and alive. We have grown well acquainted with the walls of our house this winter, surrounded by too many things that are attached to too many "Don't touch"-es.

Our front door is open, beckoning the girls to go out. They are playing in that Great Room without walls, free to explore the earth, water, and rocks with un-mittened fingers. Like abandoned snowsuits, hats, and boots, the thick layer of rules the girls wore this winter while inside our house are shed. Today, they wear only one rule: "Don't go up the mountain and don't go down the mountain."

I wonder if I appreciated spring so much when I was younger? Certainly I loved it, watched for it, and enjoyed it. But the appreciation has deepened now that the winters are colder here in mountainous Colorado than in the mild South Carolina Lowcountry. Maybe I appreciate spring all the more now that I am a parent and hear freedom ring out loud in the laughter and play of Catherine and Camille as the sun warms the earth and melts a forgotten but favorite play place. Once only watched for, now spring is longed for.

I wonder, too, if I have always appreciated my parents? Certainly I did, as much as I knew. But now that I am a mother, the appreciation has deepened. I loved them as Mom and Dad, Mum and Dad... but now I love them more deeply as our children's grandparents.
To Mom and Dad Stansell...

To Mum and Dad Snyder...

We are grateful mostly for your relationship with the Living Lord. Thank you for trusting Him to be our true Counsellor, Shepherd, and Father as we walk through the days as husband/wife, father/mother, colleague/friend. I don't know what it must be like to be parents to adult children, the things you think, wonder, and are concerned about. But I do know that as you rest in Him, believing He will take responsibility for all He says He will, we sense a peace and rest in your hearts toward us. What freedom and joy!

We love you, miss you, and long for you!