Springtime in Chicagoland

On April 11th, I woke up bright and early (5:30 a.m., thank you very much!), went downstairs, looked out the window, and saw this...and this...

Did I mention that it was April 11th??? Well, that's springtime in Northern Illinois for you! So I set about making my coffee, grumbling the entire time. Then I sat down for my devotions.

And wouldn't you know it, the devotion for April 11th, naturally, was about Psalm 118:24 - "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

The thing is, I don't usually get stuck in the past, but I do tend to worry about tomorrow - a lot. And I often find myself dwelling on future events - these days, it's "when Sarah comes home". Why is it taking so long, how much longer will it be before she's home, will anything go awry in the process. But what I have to keep reminding myself is that I need to just enjoy today for what it is. Enjoy my family of five, enjoy my girls at ages 8, almost 5, and 3. And not try to rush ahead in my thoughts to when Sarah will finally come home. Because each day is, indeed, a gift. Our girls grow up soooooo fast! I want to treasure each day, each moment that our children are young.

As if to emphasize the point, I had taken the pictures of the snow using an old memory stick that I hadn't used in a very long time (it came with the camera and has very little memory). When I downloaded the photos, these were on there as well...

These photos were taken in December 2004. Abbie had only been home a couple of weeks. She was about 10 months old, Rachel was 2 1/2, and Hannah was 5 1/2. They were so little! And I'll never get those days back. So I'll make a more concerted effort to not focus so much on a year or so from now when our family is finally "complete", and to focus on my "complete" family right now! I will rejoice and be glad in this day!