Happy Father's Day

Dear Mark, 
  What an incredible honor it is to watch you be a dad to Jake and to Pierce.  It brings me no greater joy!  Two of my favorite times of the day are when you go in to get Jake in the morning and he with the happiest little voice says "hi daddy hi!" and then in the evening when he hears your truck pulling in runs to the window and says, "my daddy is home my daddy is home" in absolute sheer excitement.  And then Pierce goes crawling at warp speed in your direction.  You are loving.  You are fun.  You read the best stories.  You build the coolest train tracks.  You push the highest on the swings.  You take the longest walks.  You are a wonderful teacher.  You are kind.  You know when to wrestle and when to just snuggle on the couch.  You light up the eyes of your boys.  You show our boys what it is like to be a man who loves God first and how to love me well.  You are an absolute wonderful daddy and I love watching what you do best!  Jake and Pierce are so so lucky to have you as a dad.  Thank you Jesus for a wonderful husband and for giving my boys a wonderful daddy.

And to my own daddy,
  All I can say is that you are just amazing!  Your love for mom, us kids, and now your grandkids brings tears to my eyes at times.  You are an incredible example of what a Godly parent should look like.  I have loved you more these past two months and watching you on this journey I have nothing but awe and love and respect for you.  Thank you Jesus for a wonderful daddy!

Update

For those of you who don't Facebook, here is a short update on my daddy.  His surgery yesterday went really well.  It was supposed to be about a 4 hour surgery and it only took about 2 1/2 hours.  We will know the pathology results hopefully sometime next week.  So please continue to pray that there will be absolutely NO sign of cancer outside of his prostate.  Today, Tuesday, has been really rough on dad.  He is in ALOT of pain and ALOT of nausea.  The plan is for him to be discharged tomorrow but all systems have to be a "go"... if you know what I mean!  :)  But with how he has been feeling tonight, they may not let him go just quite yet.  So, obviously, we still covet your prayers as we still have a long recovery ahead of us... or ahead of him!

Thank you sweet friends!

The Eve of My Dad's Surgery

So tomorrow's the day.  The day that my dad has his cancer removed.  I want yall to read an excerpt of something he wrote today on his blog (www.habeckerfamily.blogspot.com)...

First and foremost, I am grateful that I can trust God for everything in life. I think of the words of Job; "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity" (Job 2.10). God has blessed me sooo much in life. Yes, I've had my share of life hardships along with some physical challenges, but overwhelmingly I think of my life as being richly blessed by a loving God. So as I anticipate surgery and a good outcome tomorrow, I thank God for the privilege of trusting Him once again. I trust a loving God who cares infinitely more than I could ever imagine.

I anticipate surgery knowing the love of my family. My wife, Vicki, Jennifer and Mark (along with Jake and Pierce), Bethany and Luke, and Jonathan are amazing with their love and prayers. I am blessed. You can read more at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/halhabecker

I anticipate surgery tomorrow knowing the love of friends. I have had the blessing of at least four different organized prayer events at our church. (What can I say about the outpouring of love through Dallas Bible Church!) I have had notes, calls, emails, and texts from hundreds of friends. I've had dozens of phone calls from family and friends where people have prayed for me over the phone.

So I am at rest and at peace with all God is doing and will do through this journey. I hope my journey will encourage you, and I look forward to all that He will continue to do through my life. 

and then this from his caringbridge site...

Can one ever say "I'm looking froward to surgery?" Yes. I am looking forward to surgery tomorrow.

There is a cancer in me that is incompatible with life. All cancer is incompatible with life at some point. So, yes, I am ready to get on with it. The seeds of death are at work in my body, and my prayer is that God will remove them through this surgery.

I don't have any hesitation about this surgery. I'm ready to get on with it so I can recover.

I'm looking forward to all that God will teach me through this process. I love moving into the future with God. I did not choose this adventure but God did, and I know He will teach me valuable lessons.

I have peace in my heart. I implicitly trust God and the surgeon together with his team that operate on me.

I love the idea of going into surgery with my wife and kids who are totally supportive of their husband and Dad. They are awesome. There is nothing like a family that loves.

I love going into surgery with the support I have from our church. They have prayed over me, and they are praying with me tomorrow and in the days ahead.

I love having the support of my family on both my side and Vicki's side of the family. Families are such a gift, aren't they?

So I will rest well tonight, counting my blessing galore, and I will awake to the new adventure that will continue tomorrow.

I read Psalm 80 today as one of my Psalms for the day. There is a phrase in Psalm 80 that goes like this;

"Cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved." It is repeated 3 times (vv.3, 7, and 19). That's what I feel about tomorrow. Our salvation is in Him, and we praise Him in advance.

I don't really need to say anymore.  Somehow each of you has just grown to love my dad just by reading his words.  Will you please join me in praying tomorrow?

His surgery will be at 1:30pm (Texas time).

Please pray for him.

Please pray for my mom.

Please pray for everyone's anxiety.

Please pray for peace.

Please pray for Dr. Kella.

Please pray for the robot.  (I know, that sounds so funny)

Please pray for all the nurses and the hospital staff.

Please pray that the cancer will be completely removed and there will be no sign of it ever again.

Please pray for a quick recovery so that he and my mom can travel back to Dallas.

Please pray that the Lord will be glorified in my dad's life.

and for a selfish one... Please pray that I won't be too sad tomorrow.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!  FOREVER AND EVER!

En Route

My parents left for San Antonio this morning. Dad's surgery is Monday morning. Click here if you are new to my blog. Will update later this weekend with specific details on how you can pray. But right now, you can pray for their safety to SA.

Just Jake

A few mornings ago, Mark and I got to spend several hours with just Jake and we loved every single second of it. He is growing up so quickly. Learning new words and phrases every day. Mimicking us all the time. Cracking us up almost on an hourly basis. I think he is going to have his dad's sense of humor (which is something I prayed for when I was pregnant!) His excitement for life is contagious. He has the sweetest and most precious little heart. Loves to have fun and be "all boy" but loves to just snuggle with his mommy too.

Anyways, we left Pierce with our housekeeper/nanny and headed to this great park about a half hour from us. This park has everything too. The greatest stuff to play on. A squirting water area (don't know really what to call it). Ducks to feed. Paddle boats, canoes, etc to rent. A lake to ride bikes around. A carousal to ride. Horses to ride. Animals to pet. And to top it all off... a train to ride. Just a little slice of heaven for kids :)

We got in the car afterwards and Mark and I just smiled at each other. Our hearts were so incredibly full at that very moment. Spending some special and really just plain FUN moments alone with our oldest was just what we needed... I think it's what Jake needed too! :)




OK, this thing was just plain FUN! You got to control the tractor arm and dig and lift and drop rocks all you wanted. Seriously, Jake was in heaven. I've got to figure out how I can rent something like this... would be PERFECT for a birthday party!! :)




Feeding the ducks. I stayed as far away as I could :)
"Can I have some more peeeeeeese?"






All aboard!




Fun on the carosaul. This thing moved so fast- probably a little too fast. Totally caught me off guard. But Jake loved it!


Pausing for a quick kiss.

Weekend Happenings

Not too much news around here. Just enjoying the summer and each other! We were super excited that daddy was able to have this past weekend off so we took advantage of every waking moment with him :)


Very excited that daddy is not going to work :)


Enjoying the new pirate ship water table... it's a complete HIT!




Pierce got his first shiner. Boo!


Still smiling though!


We had tons of fun swimming!


Jumping in... of course with a beloved truck in hand :)


This was about 10 minutes before sweet Mr Smiley got stung by a mean bee. He kinda had a rough weekend!


And we ended the weekend with some scooter riding.

Chicago

The last week we were in Dallas this spring Mark and I were able to steal away for 2 nights to the Windy City. Mark had a special wine tasting and I decided to tag along. Thank you to my wonderful parents for watching the boys... with everything going on- recovering from Bethany's wedding, my dad's cancer, my grandparents health not great, it was a huge blessing for my parents to have loved on them for 3 days, because they had already been loving on them for 6 weeks!

So, on Wednesday morning, we boarded a plane. Just us. No kids. No stroller. No backpacks or diaper bags. No having to entertain kids. No having to pray that the flight goes very quickly. Just us. I only had my purse. I got to do anything I wanted on that flight- which was read my book, sleep, and really just stare! I even got to hold Mark's hand. It was a GREAT flight! I even wore heels on the plane- ha!

We stayed at the Peninsula Hotel which was amazing! I highly recommend it if you want to splurge while in Chicago. We definitely felt spoiled not to mention completely relaxed. Our room overlooked Lake Michigan. I didn't want to leave it... but we did have some shopping to do! :)

One of the fun things we did was take an architectural boat tour of downtown. While it was completely freezing we had a great time. Lots of very cool and different buildings!




The new Trump Tower







We had dinner the first night with some friends which was fun but the second night Mark and I just wanted to spend some time alone together- something that doesn't happen very often. So where did we go? To a nice restaurant? To our room to order room service? :) Nope, just around the corner to a little hole in the wall to consume a "world famous" chicago style pizza of course! Oh. My. Word. Delish!!! Serious greatness!



It was a perfect 3 days. We came home rested and relaxed. It was a great time for Mark and I to just recharge our batteries and spend some precious quality time with each other. I love him even more after that weekend. I treasure those moments with my husband.



PS- and about that wine tasting Mark had... well Arista is now sold in the great city of Chicago (well, really all over IL!)

Future Farmers of America

If you would have asked me 5 years ago (pre CA days) what FFA stood for I would have had absolutely no idea. But since I have now become a small town girl... (smile)

Healdsburg has their FFA parade and fair the weekend of memorial day every year. It's so fun. We all put out chairs on the side of the street earlier in the day and then anxiously await for the parade to start to kick off the weekend. We go with and meet some great friends, have fun laughing, eating, and making wonderful memories. Of course, in our family the biggest hit are the firetrucks! Jake can hear them coming and really just can hardly contain himself seeing those huge red trucks drive past him. All the floats* throw out candy, except the "farmers market" truck who gives out carrots! :) *Now, when I say the word "floats" please don't picture in your mind the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade, or even floats from my alma mater Baylor. These "floats" are merely flatbed trailers with some people on top! Only in a small town...

Then a couple times during the weekend we will walk up to the fair (since it's about a 1/2 block from our house) and pet as many animals as we can, catch a ride on a little train, watch the big kids on bounce houses and consume a hotdog or two. I completely love watching the parade and going to the fair through the eyes of my kids. They are so happy. Their eyes just light up. I can just see little Pierce's brain working overtime as he sees new animals, new people and new things that you only see at a local county fair :) Both times we went up to the fair I was flying solo with the boys and didn't even think about lugging along my good camera so I only have pictures of the parade.



Little Pierce feeling all the excitement!


"oooo daddy, wook at that"


fun old cars






the smallest of all the firetrucks. i was too busy watching jake to take pictures of the big ones!


this is the little preschool where Jake will be this fall- we cannot wait!




don't ask...


... 'cause I'm not really that sure...

Until next year future farmers...

Ears

Sweet little guy has been battling double ear infections for about 6 weeks now and is currently on his 3rd round of antibiotics! Could have fooled me by this picture :)

Looovvvveee this little happy man so much!