Easter Joy

I hope you all had a beautiful Easter and that the Easter Bunny was extra good to you. But most of all, I hope you experienced sheer jubilation at the celebration of Christ's rising from the dead and God's promise of eternal life. 

Growing up, Christmas was always my favorite holiday--as I'm sure it is for most kids! The lights, the decorations, the cookies, the presents, what's not to love?! However, once I had Adeline, Easter became my new favorite holiday. For the first time, I felt like I could understand the utter devastation God must have experienced in sacrificing His one and only Son. And I was struck by how much God loved ME, that He thinks my life (and yours) was worth the sacrifice of His Son's. On Adeline's first Easter, I held her in my arms while worship music filled the church and happy-tears welled as I truly FELT the love of Christ. I had the same feelings this Easter (with the addition of Lincoln), thinking about all the hope that awaits Lincoln with a life in Christ.

Our morning began with trying to restrain Adeline from running out the door to hunt eggs until my mom could join us for the fun. It took every ounce of her will to keep from bolting. As soon as I greeted Addie when she woke up, she remembered EXACTLY what was promised the night before! She was so eager to hunt eggs that she had no interest in opening her Easter basket. Earlier in the week she picked out an Easter basket at the store, but insisted on using her Halloween bucket instead, which is totally an Addie move. Who hunts Easter eggs with a jack-o-lantern bucket? Once she started there was no holding her back. It was so fun to hear her gasp each time she found an egg, and she kept saying, "Oh my gosh!" We wanted to use cascarones (colored egg shells filled with confetti) for the hunt, which we did last year, but couldn't find any in Tucson. The Walmart in El Paso had an entire aisle stocked with cascarones last year. I'll bet they don't have them in Alabama either, where we'll be celebrating Easter next year, so I think we'll try to make our own next time. 

After our egg hunt, we rushed to church. As we walked into the servive she stated, "It's time to pray to God." Very matter of fact! My favorite part of the day was listening to Addie enjoy the worship music. At the end of each song she clapped vibrantly and shouted, "Yay, Jesus!" Sooo sweet! After church we did the usual family shuffle, enjoying time with Tim's family and then with my family. Adeline lucked out with four Easter baskets throughout the day, which had me wondering when Easter turned into Christmas, ha. She's one blessed little gal. We had a beautiful day and look forward to next year's celebration, where Addie will hunt eggs in her fifth house (at age 3). Life of the military =).