Happy Birthday: to the only Cat I've ever loved

I have a little sister

Catlin is her name

I think she's very pretty

with her curly mane.

We like to laugh together

Good friends are what we are.

We can sit for hours and blether

Even in a strangers car.

So come and join with me

And read the post below.

Let's end the horrid poem

And shuffle off to Buffalo.

Y'all, that was so much harder than it looks.

My baby sister, Catlin Daye, is having a birthday today. 

I won't tell you how old she is but it starts with a two and rhymes with heaven.

Here's a walk down memory lane with the one and only Cat in my life....

Her name is Catlin but she also responds to:
CatDaye, Cat, Miss Kitty, Callitan, Kitty Cat, Skister Sue, Cat-Cat-Jehosephat, KitCat, Gosshopper, Callin
I think it's obvious our family has nickname issues.

Whatever You Do, Marry a Handy Man

Ok, let me rephrase:

whatever you do, marry a man who loves Jesus first and foremost.
THEN
make sure he's handy.

Well, those are requirements just for me.
But they're not a bad start.

I had a list, that I didn't know I had, when I was growing up.
I wanted to marry a man who:

- loved Jesus
- could rebuild a carburettor
- lead his family spiritually
- would go hunting
- frame a house
- know how to handle firearms
- be a leader
- could grill

Ok, random, and not complete and most certainly not all in order but I think I got a man who fits all that AND can sing and play the fiddle.

What?!

Jackpot to Jordan.

Anyhow, sometimes on here I do completely-unrelated-to-anything posts and today is such a day. I wanted to share some amazing things my husband did for me.
If I can dream it, he can build it.

This is an invaluable trait to have in a husband when you are a Pinterest addict.
Amen.

It began when we were engaged. 

The man went all over his parents land finding cedar trees.

And he cut them down...

My April Babies

This April marks a birthday month for the Anderson household. 

There's only 2 birthday months a year here--we make a big deal out of them.

Caithness Maela Anderson was born on April 11, 2009. (I should write that birth story out sometime--if you know Nessie you'll know how indicative of HER that trial was).

Caithness is a county in Scotland located in the highlands. You can actually see it looking northwest across the Moray Firth from Buckie.

Maela is an "Anderson creation." We wanted a name that would honour the Grandmothers, but do so simultaneously without hurting feelings. So Mary + Pamela = Maela.

That little fat face,

and ALWAYS frowning eyebrows.

Be still my heart.

Offering My Greatest Treasures

Every spring our lives change. 

Every. Single. Spring.

The Anderson family has some huge life-altering event/news take place. 

Some events are the best of our lives: the birth of Caithness Maela, the birth of Aberdeen Daye. 

Some events the most dramatic or painful: our home flooded with 5,000 gallons of raw sewage, the loss of our baby boy, Iain. 

This April marks the 3 year anniversary of one of the greatest times of trial in our lives. It is a story to be told, and we will tell it each year--to the glory of God. This story will be forever be etched on our hearts.

After church on Easter Sunday 2012 in Missouri while the majority of the family took naps I took Caedmon, then 5, out to fly his kite. While sitting on the bank of our pond I noticed an awful bruise on his right knee; black, blue, purple, it was horrible. Yet he didnʼt recall how heʼd gotten it or seem in pain from it. As I pointed it out later to Mark I realised both Caedmonʼs knees were bruised quite traumatically. That evening we were appalled to find similar bruising all over his body. Mark and I looked over Caedmon at each other with an awful sense of dread in our eyes. It was then the numbness began.

Caedmon flying his kite the day we discovered his bruises.