One Winter's Night

Here is the song Ross wrote for Christmas this year.

How wilt thou ever find us, Love

When we will not be seen

How wilt thou find us from above

As we still hide from thee

How wilt thou save us from ourselves

When we will not let go

How wilt thou ever find us well

Unless thou make us so

If only that which is assumed

Could ever be redeemed

Then come to us within a womb

Be born and wash our feet

And not our feet alone we pray

But everything we know

That thou O Love would come and stay

And all our sorrows go

O Love, make a way

Come and find us

Search the darkness light the way

Come and guide us home

Yet thou will not be welcomed here

Still Love, please come and be

Our refuge, wipe away our tears

Though we will murder thee

For darkness only turns to day

If you become the night

And we on you our darkness lay

That it be swallowed in light

Blessed One, born today

Come and find us

Search our darkness light the way

Come and guide us home

O the sunrise seems so far away

Find us, Child of Bethlehem

Find us here the Son of Man

One winter’s night

Begins eternal summer morn

If only you are born

The gods we trusted and became

Will find no solace here

Beside his creatures low and lame

The Son of God appears

A thousand years of “progress” past

A million hearts beguiled

Now Love alone will reign and last

Within one little child

Blessed One, born today

Come and find us

Search our darkness light the way

Come and guide us home

One winter’s night

Begins eternal summer morn

If only you are born

Snowman's Land

Merry Christmas Eve!! So far it looks like we’re going to have a white Christmas if all this snow sticks around a little longer. We have really been enjoying the 25 inches of snow we received last weekend. Sydney has gotten to play in it more than any of us, and Ila loves to watch her swim through the deep powder. This truly is a winter wonderland holding out it’s hand . . . (play song by our good friend Uncle Jarbo)e:///Users/hannahbyrd/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Originals/2009/Dec%2018,%202009/CIMG1528.JPG

Thanksgiving Weekend in Hatteras

Every year (beginning last year) we go to Hatteras with some friends for the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year we had a smaller crowd: the Fines, the Byrnes, and the Doziers, but we still managed to do some serious relaxing, surfing, and gaming. Yes Hannah the game-hater participated this year and actually enjoyed it. I’m not sure why the thought of sitting down and playing games makes me vomit a little in my mouth... maybe it was that horrific 12-hour drive to Nashville where JB and Ross played trivial pursuit until I almost threw it out the window. I’m still not sure why I didn’t. Or the time some of us played some DVD game where I ended up in tears by the end of the night. It’s all a bit of a blur now, but I will say that I have come a long way and look forward to dominating the guys in “Fishbowl” again soon.

Day With Kate Kate

Saturday, Ila’s BFF, Kate Fine came to visit for a whole day! They had so much fun playing together at the park especially. . .

We saw these big horsies on the downtown mall.

At the park, they liked to walk all around the path and pick up sticks and rocks.

Our Wedding 4 Years Ago

Ila's Baptism

Ila was baptized yesterday! It was at our church here in Charlottesville done by our good friend Paul Walker, who also married Ross and I four years ago. We asked Thomas Dixon to be Ila’s godfather who came up from Duke to be here with us. All the grandparents and great-grandparents and some aunts and an uncle came too. It was a very meaningful day as we celebrated what Christ has done for us and how that will come to fruition in Ila’s life by the work of the Holy Spirit.

We have been thinking about infant baptism a lot lately, and surely we don’t have it all figured out, but we do know that we really appreciate the way it represents what God did for us through his Son on the cross, “while we were still sinners” and as helpless as a child.

We don’t think infant baptism is some magical moment that locks her into Christianity or good moral standing forever. She will grow up with a mind and heart of her own that will have to wrestle with the same things we did. But we don’t think she merely got sprinkled with water either. The water she was sprinkled with yesterday holds a very long history, and we believe there is power in inviting the Holy Spirit to take hold of her life. We want her to look back on her baptism and be moved by realizing that even into her teenage and adult years, there will still be nothing she can do to earn God’s grace. She can only receive it like a little child on her baptism day . . . bruised and drooling and spilling her crackers everywhere. Though it made for some interesting pictures, I love that on her baptism day she had a big bruise on her forehead and a scratch on her chin that she had gotten just a few days before. Though she was “bruised and broken” she was covered in a beautiful white garment, the same way Jesus covers us in our sin with his grace and love. As Galatians 3:27 says, “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Thanks be to God that we are fully loved and fully accepted AS WE ARE. Here are some pics from the day . . .

Evolution

Here is Ila as a frog last year, the day before her Auntie Ca Ca’s wedding and this year as a monkey, the day before Auntie Dster’s wedding! My how she has evolved.

Backyard Adventures

So Ila is already an outdoors baby! Any chance she gets, she LOVES being outside. We are lucky enough to have a little fenced in backyard where Ila likes to roam around, usually with her buddy, Sydney. The grass area is pretty bumpy, so it’s good practice for her balance to walk all around on it, finding sticks to give Sydney along the way. She also searches for tennis balls to throw for her . . .

A Monkey And A Wedding

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve written. I couldn’t get the video to post in the last entry and got frustrated with iweb. . . but now we’re back!

We had a very eventful weekend in Pennsylvania for our very good friends Danielle and Jake’s wedding! It was so wonderful to see two people so in love commit their lives to each other. The reception was at a winery outside of Doylestown, where D and Jake both grew up and went to school together. Ila did great and got to see some of her mommy’s best JMU friends from college too.

Though the wedding was on Saturday, we still managed to dress Ila up as a monkey and get a few shots of her. . .