Thanksgiving this year was good & a bit sad. We didn’t get many pictures but here are a few:
Josiah on Thanksgiving
Macrae’s (2nd) birthday was actually on Thanksgiving day this year- here are some pictures of him with mr. Ron blowing out the candles on the cake Mercy made for him
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!!
DO YOU SEE THESE TWO GIRLS!?!?! They are usually very good friends… BUT… girl one is the wild, jump-off-the-sofa kind of girl & girl two is the lets-play-baby-dolls-no don’t-hold-her-like-that-she-still-has-a-soft-spot kind of girl. Girl 2 is somewhat literal & girl 1 has a active imagination. CAN YOU GUESS WHICH ONE IS WHICH???
Maybe this scenario will help you make an educated guess:
While Mercy doesn’t exactly have an imaginary friend, she has a few ‘friends’ who she didn’t come up with but likes to imagine she is playing with. One of them is Pig from her favourite book, If you Give A Pig A Pancake. The other one is Avely. Avely is a little girl at our church who Mercy is usually too shy to actually play with- I think Mercy wants to be friends with Avely because she knows she would be pretty fun, but she is shy when it comes right down to it. I also have a sneeking suspicion that Mercy likes her wardrobe– this comes from little things like Mercy dreamily saying: “Oh Ellen, did you see Avely’s crocs?” or “Oh, Avely’s coat is so cute.” Anyway, the other day Mercy was playing with “Avely”.
MERCY: Ellen, where’d Avely go?
ELLEN: She’s over there, playing with that ball
MERCY: Oh yeah [goes over & starts play with "Avely"]
ANNIE: Uh, Ellen… is Mercy really playing with Avely
ELLEN: Well, no, not really, but she imagines she is.
ANNIE: So… does she see Avely?
ELLEN: Not exactly, but she sees her with her imagination. Get it?
ANNIE: uh… not really. [sits there for a minute then looks at me sort of funny] Ellen… do YOU see Avely over there?
ELLEN: with my imagination I do.
ANNIE: [looks from me to Mercy. Realises that we're insane.]
Well? Which one do you think is girl one???
Mercy Riley, a local toddler, joins the fight for Thanksgiving to be restored in her family kitchen
ATTENTION RETAIL SHOPPERS: The search for Thanksgiving goes on, with mixed sucess. While we have found some clues- the turkeys displayed in the middle aisle of the meat section, the indian corn at the front of the store by the christmas tree- our suspicions have been confirmed that the Thanksgiving holiday is, indeed, missing. As we drive through town, gazing out the window at all of the colourful lights & inflatable santas, my fellow reporters & I have a growing feeling that Christmas has something to do with the abduction. Don’t quote me on that, though- investigation is still underway.
While the retail market seems to be ever striving to stifle this holiday, local families are still standing stong against the attacks. Miss Sarah Joy states that she would like to see Thanksgiving in the stores & decorating yards again. “Really, whatever DID happen to Thanksgiving?” she asked as she drove past ballard park. Later, my investigation took me to the home of a local toddler who says she loves the Thanksgiving holiday. “I tan’t wait til Thaksgivin’,” Miss Mercy Riley says “’cause Crae & aunt Mel’nie comin’.” Riley related how she would have fun with her Grandparents & mrs Teresa too. “Is Thaksgivin’ this Sadurday?” she asked.
Riley and Joy are just two of many people who say the Thanksgiving is alive and well. “It’s just not in the stores anymore.” They say sadly.
Riley is an advid cook and is looking forward to the upcoming holiday with delight
Join the fight!!! Thank God for all of His bountiful gifts. Don’t just eat lots of turkey- take some time to consider how much you have to be thankful for. What a great reminder that every good and perfect gift is from above.
-From Channel 16 News, I’m Ellen Riley
*Sigh* So. Here I am. Right now there is a chair in the middle of the hallway leading to the back of the house- there is a piece of paper ripped from a notebook taped to it with the words ‘The babies are goning to sleep… “you shall not pass”‘… or something. Humm… that’s never happened before. So here I am, wishing for the convience of the laptop which I know is only a few steps away in my bedroom- but my bedroom is in the back of the house: off limits. So I am writing with someone else’s pen in a wide-ruled spiral bound notebook: only one of several which float around our home- sometimes downstairs, sometimes upstairs, sometimes in the van- full of old half finished grocery lists, “may I have a…” in Sarah or Ben’s hand (legible) and the reply in Momma’s handwriting (round), and other doodling from random people. Now a page with quotes from favuorite songs, movies or books (Emma’s), now a page full of hearts and the words ANNIE ANNA ANNE and the brand-new HALLEL over and over because they are the only words Annie can really spell yet, now a page where somebody took an order which only they can understand. I am sitting on the couch in the living room, which is the one I recovered but haven’t quite finished yet, a coordination sheet spread slopily over the seat to try fruitlessly to hide the fact that I haven’t recovered the cusions yet.
Welcome to my life, the life of a not quite 17-year old girl in a family of 13.
So many people wonder how I could possibly love my life. So many people just *know* that I go all my days secretly wishing I had been born to a different family, living with a hidden longing to be able to live my youth as wild and irresponsibly as “everyone else” my age gets to. But I don’t. With all my heart I can say that I do not. I can’t imagine how anyone on earth could be happier than I am right now.
So. Here I am. It’s the end of another day. The babies are are peacefully tucked in their beds- Josiah, I think, asleep, but Momma’s attempts to get Mercy setled down have so far been with very mixed sucess- she is lying in bed without getting up now I think, but she is not asleep. So probably the chair in the hall is still there & my room is still off limits. This is such a peaceful home. I look around. I am sitting in the upstairs living room. When I look from my wide-ruled spiral bound notebook the first thing I see is a vase of pink roses- the bushes in our front yard are so pretty this time of year. Beside the roses are Rutherfords Letters & Momma’s Bible- probably from when she siezed a quiet moment to sit & read earlier this afternoon. She really is a lovely lady.
So. Here I am. Unmeasurably blessed. I have been given the best family in the world, a happy home, and a Saviour who loves me.
Sometimes, I think it’s just awesome.
~Ellie
ok, when I write late at night I am so sentimental.
These are some pictures from the last several months, none of them are new:
Momma has Josiah in the ‘wearing thingy’ (that’s what Mercy calls the Urgo carrier)
Jake, Ben, Ellen, Annie, Mercy, Momma & Hannah watching the sea lions at the zoo. This is Mercy’s favourite exibit.
Trey & Jake building the chicken pen. I know that if I was a ‘good’ blog ‘poster’ I would put after pictures of the finished product. But I’m not going to. Not today.
What exactly is heaven? Where is it? When did it start? Will it really last for ever; and if so, just how long is that, anway? What makes it heaven?
Before Christ came into my life, all of my pursuit of Him was really me chasing a heaven of my imagination- and I basically thought that that was what the Christian life is. There have been so many questions that have come into my heart these past several months as I look around in awe at what it is really like. I find that being a Christian isn’t like I thought being a Christian would be (no! for being a Christian means being with the REAL Christ, not the hollow, uncaring Christ of my imagination!), and with that come so many other things which I find to be so different. For instance, heaven. I guess if being a Christian isn’t quite like I thought being a Christian would be, heaven just might not be exactly what I was expecting either. And I’ve found that it is not.
Let me start by decribing to you the heaven which unbelieving Ellen was pursuing:
It was a big place… I didn’t ever really visualize what it looked like, but it was certainly pleasant. I guess although the idea was really appealing to me, my main thought was not of the “golden castle” idea of heaven, because that was not what I was most hoping for. Not castles. The most prominite picture in my mind was the idea of having every thing go “my way”-I just I had a vague thought of finally being ‘in charge’ of what happened to me in some way. I was chasing a dream of a place where everything happened the way I wanted it to. My second thought of heaven was as a quiet spot where I could sit in a rocking chair & finally hold my Abigail again. I wanted to go to heaven (1) because I knew that hell was real in some way & didn’t want to go there; (2) because I wanted to finally be in a place where (as I thought) I might be able to make things go how I wanted them to go; (3) because I had (and still have) an intense longing to see the sister I never got to know, just once more. Always in my imagining of heaven Abby was there, just me & her. Abby was what made it heaven in my mind- in all ways it was much as this world is, except that Abigail was there, and dying was not real. I thought heaven was heaven because Abigail was there & bitter death was not.
But that is not why heaven is heaven. I find now that heaven is heaven because of Christ. Now that I know Him, I know that it could not possibly be heaven without Him. He is what is lovely about it. Not the gold & silver, no! Not the freedom from death- Christ, Christ is why it is heaven, I see now what I did not see before. Heaven is a place where we will at last be so free from sin that our released spirits will finally be able to praise our Saviour without check or bound; a place where the grief and hurt and pain that cuts us here will not come & sting any longer; a place where death that chases us here will not be permitted to enter; a place where our awakened souls will join with so many other saints who have gone before in inceasantly singing the glory of our God; a place where we will finally be complete in Christ; a place where we will finally see Him face to face; a place where we can at last sit in His holy presence forever & ever.
I am still exploring the meaning of heaven & would be a fool to try & expound further. With every new truth I dicover of our Home, the longing grows keener. The thought of going there grows sweeter in my heart with every changing tide of life, as I find that less & less of my own is here on earth. Every day as my understanding of heaven is growing deeper & I am finding that it is nothing like I thought it would be, that it is so much more beautiful than I thougth it would be- I find that I must be careful that my goal does not once again become heaven, but that my goal be now & always my only Christ. I must constantly remind myself as I strive to press daily toward my resting place where I can be with Him at last, that He is not absent from us who still trek the road to our Home. He is with us all along the road which we travel. He has not left His children to sojourn alone in this land. We can know Him here. He is with us here. We can praise Him here. We are His here.
Now I will leave you with some quotes from three of my favourite tools in discovering the truths of heaven: the Holy Scriptures, Samuel Rutherford, and Rich Mullins:
“Whom have I in Heaven but Thee?” Psalm 73.25
“He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaks of
the earth: he that comes from heaven is above all.” John 3.31
“He that believes on the Father has everlasting life…” John 3.36
“He that has the Son has life…” I John 5.12
“These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you might believe on the name of the Son of God.” John 5.13
“…That we might know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son
Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” I John 5.20
“There is such a thing as Glory
And there are hints of it everywhere
And the hints are overwelming
And it’s scent is in the air
It’s more powerful than morning
Oh the morning can’t compare
With such a thing as glory…” Rich Mullins
“When I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It’ll be like a candlelight in central park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye.” Rich Mullins
“They are not lost ot you who are laid up in Christ treasurury in heaven. At the ressurection you ye shall meet with them: there they are, sent before but not sent away. The Lord loveth you, who is homely to take and give, to borrow & lend.” Samuel Rutherford
“There is nothing but perfect garden flowers in heaven, and the greatest plenishing there is Christ” Samuel Rutherford
“God has made many fair flowers, but the fairest of them all is heaven and the flower of all flowers is Christ.” Samuel Rutherford
“We smell the smoke of this lower house of the earth, because our heart and our thoughts are here. If we could mount up with God, we should smell of heaven and of our country above, and like strangers or people not born or brought up here-away. Our crosses would not bite upon us, if we were Heavenly minded.” Samuel Rutherford
“The sea-sick passenger shall come to land; Christ will be the first that will meet you on the shore” Samuel Rutherford
“Christ has come, and run away to heaven with my heart and my love, so that neither heart nor love is mine.” Samuel Rutherford
“Go on and faint not, something of yours is in heaven, beside the flesh of your exalted Saviour, and ye go on after your own.” Samuel Rutherford
It is not an imaginary place where fairy-angels dance in piles of gold. It is a real place. Real people I love are there right now. Abigail is there. My great grandmother Angeline is there. Even as we still daily have to remind ourselves that she is no longer here, Mrs Amber is there. It is amzing to imagine for a moment how different it must be for her than for us who are left behind for a little while longer. We know that they are expiriencing a greater reality than we could ever begin to get a hint of down here in the play world. Press on, press on toward heaven & Christ, do not look back on this old, cold, dirty playhouse, unless it be to grab by the hand some poor other, by such encouraging them to loosen their hold of the things of earth in a greater quest for things eternal. “What may I say of Him? Let us come & see.”
Sorry— didn’t mean to post somany, I just got carried away posting “the good ones” 
Josiah & I had a photo shoot and I think it went pretty good (if you think he looks fat without his clothes on, it is because he’s… well… fat.)
Since I’ve posted all of these anyway, you could leave me a comment & tell me which one(s) you think are best… Momma going to be putting together some pics for Josiah’s birthmom soon.
This has got to be one of the cutest Josiah pictures ever taken!!! I love it!!!
*** okay, I know that most of you are probably thinking, “we know what Josiah looks like, Ellen. when are you going to WRITE something???????”. Well, the answer is simple : I have. I’ve written several things. And I have them stored. In my head. Hopefully soon I’ll get some of it typed out on the computer & post it.***
