2nd annual Easter potluck AND Steve's 4th birthday

Easter Sunday was a very grand and celebratory event here at our home!

This was our second annual Easter potluck here in Burkina and we had about 80 people grace our home this year! It was kind of a big undertaking, hosting this many people only five days after bringing a new child home....but we managed with the help of some great people. We had friends come over early to help set up one hundred chairs and make one hundred meat patties while Isaak cooked the burgers. And while everyone was helping get ready for the potluck party, I was busy getting ready for another party set to happen afterwards....

We all had a great time! There was plenty of swimming to combat the extreme heat....

There was plenty of great food to eat.....there was lots of talking and fellowshipping and connecting...

There was a grand easter egg hunt around the yard with hundreds of eggs for the kids to find and collect! Me and my mom stayed up late Saturday night stuffing said eggs (and alternating eating the candy we put in them, of course) while we watched a movie and laughed and talked. I mean, if you're gonna lose sleep to stuff easter eggs, who better to lose it with than your mom while you watch The Devil Wears Prada?! Easter classic right there!

Back to the hunt...after helping Steven find the first egg he had no trouble catching on and figuring out what to do and before I knew it he was running all over the yard filling up his basket.

Marvelly and Sydaleigh made out with quite the loot themselves. This was about the only time they came out of the pool the whole day.

First Easter together......

Steven with his new buddy Elijah. His friend is 3 1/2 yrs....and today just happened to be Steven's 4th birthday!! (he's just a teenie beenie little guy!) Talk about a great day to celebrate redemption!

After everyone went home following the party, we had a quiet little gathering in the house with Seth and Rebecca, and the second closest people in Steven's life...Mike and Amy. Fortunately they were in town from Yako preparing to leave for the US the next day, so we were able to celebrate his birthday with them before they left, which was such a gift!

Before the potluck I was busy trying to make a Curious George cake, and had the face almost outlined and then my piping bag broke and I had to finish drawing it with a toothpick....which didn't look so good! Being the semi-perfectionist that I am, I couldn't live with a weird monkey face on his cake, so I ended up scrapping the monkey idea and smearing the black frosting all over the top in hopes that it would blend into the white (ummm, not sure why I thought that would work) but it just turned blackish grey....so I made it a race track instead. Voila. It works.

Birthday boy!! We won't miss another milestone in his life....so happy he was able to be home with us to celebrate his birthday. Glory!! Our boy turned FOUR!

We had Christmas presents saved that family sent before the holidays that he was finally able to open.

The girls made sure how to show him how to rip open a present. He even got a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie...which I have BIG plans to watch that with him when he's a wee bit older. I remember watching that in the movie theater when I was just a little older than Sydaleigh. 

A very great and full day. A joy to celebrate the resurrection of our risen Savior with so many friends, and then celebrate that redemption and grace in its fullest way with the celebration of Steven's birthday in our home. 

He came to save. To heal. To mend. To redeem. To make all things new....

....and I can testify to the truth of that. He as saved, healed, mended, redeemed, and made all things new in my life in more ways than I can say. 

I can testify to the truth of that. He came to offer redemption. Jesus came to make all things new in Him. He is the very reason that we celebrate. He is worthy of more praise than my lips could ever speak. 

And I will live my life celebrating Him and testifying to the truth of His love for us....

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor. 5:17-20

A very happy Easter day.