Kick a ball. See a cow.

One of the joys of being married to a youth pastor is that you get to go and do lots of fun stuff. And other times you get to pretend to be excited about what you are going to do (like play any sport) because you want others to have tons of fun and enjoy the time together. Sigh. This is how I felt about playing kickball. I do not love to run. I do not love to sweat. I do not love scenarios when teams are picked, therefore forcing someone (usually me) to be the last player chosen. But I do love people. So I showed up for our youth kickball night. 

Having shared my deepest honest thoughts on playing sports, I will now state that I did in fact have a great time! I didn't score, but I did get to kick and run the bases with Eva. The other team was merciful enough to let us run one base each time and we made it all the way to third before we were inevitably gotten out. The weather was perfect for being outside. Sweating was minimal. My team won. And I got to hang out with some great students. There. I said it. I liked playing kickball. These words may not be held against me for future sporting events.

Eva may grow up being the world's best tag along buddy. She adores all of our youth and always wants to be right where the "big kids" are. Thank you to all our youth who love our daughter and try to include her. She thinks you are so cool. 

Backing up a week, I also wanted to include a good baptism night. One of our youth, Jake, decided to be baptized a week ago. We were very proud of his decision to walk with Jesus the rest of his life and look forward to being around to share some great years with him. 

The Beard family is so incredible. I'm sure they are not perfect (because no family is) but we love the example of love they have for each other. And their daughter Gentry is one of our favorite babysitters - we will be so sad when she leaves for college! 

The home where Jake was baptized was on a large piece of land in Decatur. Since land equals room to run Eva was happy as could be. See that girl racing through the long grass? I told you last time, she belongs on the prairie.

We got to go see the cows and feed them grass. Fun times. 

The sunlight casting through. The antique wagon wheel fence. The pigtails in my daughter's hair. Be still my heart.

I hope we can share lots of wide open space memories together....this girl loves the land!