Flare Request + the Toots =

A few days ago we were hanging out with our life group when we had one of those wonderful moments you want to hold onto, catalogue, tattoo in your mind and heart.
One of those special times with your kids that you know you will recount to them over the decades to come.  

Our daughter Haven, who is about two months into her journey on this planet, had The Toots. Toots is a cuter, more sterile version, than the sounds that were actually emanating from her. She had a case of the Man-Farts.  

These were the kind of toots that you blame on the baby (babies are awesome for this reason alone...instant victims of fart-blame by fathers wafted throughout time) but are actually so powerful that the accusation seems ridiculous and people actually assume you are to blame.  

And it was awesome.  Awesome in the sense that we could barely keep the conversation going amidst the laughter and the noise of this precious little angel letting fly noises that would do any outhouse or teenage boy proud.  

[There really is a point to this besides praising the power of our daughter's tooting ability...hang in there.]

Babies are wonderful. They are totally authentic, totally honest, because they don't know how to be anything else. They don't hold in their farts, or their cries, or their smiles, and if they are bored or tired, they go to sleep wherever they are. I love them. They teach me things.  

I love taking everything seriously. Too seriously. I love to analyze, critique, and reflect more than is good for me. When you have kids involved in what you are doing, you can't take things too seriously if you are willing to let them be themselves. You have to relax, or go insane. You have to be flexible. You have to laugh at the Toots.  

And so I am asking you all to pray, to throw up flares for Hopesprings in Sioux City, that we would laugh.  That we would be authentic. That we would know how to throw a good party and celebrate the life God is giving to us and the hope we live inside. That we would love people enough to laugh with them, to take time from our work, from our effort, to rest and to be interrupted by Baby Toots. That we would dare to have fun with each other.  

Please pray. If you have prayed about supporting Hopesprings in Sioux City financially, I would invite you to click on the give link and do that. Share what we are doing with others.  And don't forget to laugh at the Toots.