Easter Hike Celebration

"Brrrrrrr!?!?!?!!!"

The water was deliciously FREEZING!

You cracking up at Daddy making cold noises and splashing around

Happy as a Cat!

You just LOVE hiking, waterfalls, and playing outside with us

Finding toads and treasures

(Yes, Mommy jumped and hid behind your Dad when she was about to jump in the water and a toad jumped up by her foot instead!)

I live for this!

Waterfall slide!

Last year, I awoke with a fever in the middle of the night right before Easter and had to rush to the emergency room (after just getting home!) with you and Nana at 3am. Remembering my third surgery, and recovery time with you as a newborn, made this Easter shine like none other.

Daddy had to work all Easter weekend, so we celebrated later. On the day of our family Easter hike tradition, it was over 90 degrees outside! So we headed out to our favorite water hole in the Blue Ridge Mountains and had the best time. At one point, I turned to your Dad teary saying, "I can walk! I can actually walk this Easter!" Not only walk, but hike with you on my back! I feel so blessed to be healed and able to take care of you full time. Our family is together, we are healthy, we can slide down waterfalls while our wild at heart baby claps and cheers for us and tries to examine the water himself! Amazing. Easter magic is so powerful. It encapsulates the essence of God, her and himself. Easter is the celebration that love always wins, that God reigns, that the promise of the rainbow lives, that the light is no match for darkness, that life is who we are, that God lives in every living thing, that miracles happen everyday, that creativity and the power of creation rules this world, that "perfect love casts out all fear," that we are all one in the One.

As we hiked back to the car with you sleeping, Daddy prayed and I cried. Last year, we felt the tender, delicate, precious fragility of life and this year we celebrate the strength, vibrancy, and power of it every time we look into your eyes. May you know, love, and trust the One who is the giver of life. God is our keeper.