congratulations, mom & dad!

mom & dad ramsdale were high school sweethearts. they met on roller skates when they were sixteen, at a south jersey youth for christ outing near ocean city. yesterday would have been their 40th wedding anniversary. mom is with us for the week, & we celebrated mom & dad's marriage yesterday. i picked wildflowers, and we ventured to muncie for a meal. dad loved a good steak, so i, his formerly semi-vegetarian, now anemic postpartum daughter, indulged in one in his honor. it was a hard day for mom, but we were glad she could be here with us, with family, on this day.

40 years of marriage doesn't just happen. it takes alot of effort, commitment, love, friendship, patience, prayer, a sense of humor & much grace! & i am so proud of my parents for staying together for the long haul. this feels so rare & precious these days. i'm sure there must have been some rough spots along the way, but their kids are better for having had parents who had such an obvious growing love for each other. thanks mom & dad! of course i wish dad were here to celebrate this occasion with us, & to meet his granddaughter, too. we miss him terribly right now.

on the topic of anniversaries, jeff & cris are completing 7 years of marriage today. congratulations, brother & sister! & this also means that josh & i have known each other for 7 years. we met while i was up from peru for their wedding; he was the wedding singer! so congratulations to us, too.

this time last year we were celebrating mom & dad's and jeff & cris's anniversaries, & lucas's birthday, together at the beach. it was our memorable week of reconciliation, recreation & beauty that we will forever be grateful for.

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mom has been such a tremendous help to us! she has been relieving me & josh while we finish up his album project. josh & i can't wait to spend even more hours with heron, but this week we've all split up responsibilities: i breastfeed (since our little lady loves la leche, this is pretty much all the time), josh takes her for awake/play times, & mom burps her, changes her, & holds her while she sleeps. meanwhile, josh finishes his mixes, & i handstitch the album cover (sometimes with a sleeping heron on my lap, if i'm careful with the needle!). we won't meet our original deadline of cornerstone for the release date, with all of the terrible & wonderful things that have happened over the last two months, but this is more than okay. now our goal is to have it in our hands before we leave indiana. this week is the last big push, & we're almost there! we couldn't have done it without mom here...