Halloween is not usually my favorite holiday, however after Christmas and New Years this year I am having fond memories of what I have often considered the black sheep of the holiday family.

From this picture you can see that Halloween came complete with a princess bride, mighty spiderman, and thing 1 and thing 2 all seated peacefully upon the laps of their smiling mommy and daddy. 

If one had been so unfortunate as to have snapped a holiday photo of the Clark family at either Christmas or New Years the scene would have looked quite differently.

Let me paint you a picture.  Christmas Eve and Christmas day would have excluded Daddy, that is unless of course the rest of the family had piled in bed with him as he battled (or whined) his way through the much touted H1N1 virus.  A personal record was set by the family patriarch as he slept for over 40 of the 48 hours of those two days.  But in spite of their fathers weakness, the family had fun, mom read the Christmas story, Santa showed up, and the kids opened the presents, and dad slept through almost all of it.

Then the day after Christmas, after a not so brief visit to the local urgent care by Daddy and his little princess, off the Clarks went, loaded with antibiotics and presents for loved ones in distant snow covered Ohio.

The day after arrival a visit ensued to Mi-Ma’s place where an uncle (who will remain unnamed) was the silent carrier of another strain of that dreaded family of viruses called flu.  Unknown to him, this was not H1N1, but the more traditional variety that brings with it total loss of control over bodily function.  After a fun filled night in which he held and kissed everyone of my kids (he’s a great uncle) we went back to Grammies house for the night.

Two uneventful days later the dawn broke with the news that this beloved uncle lay sick in bed after a night of multiple unpleasantries.  I looked at my wife and verbally repented of traveling to see my family after such a brief time of recovery from the swine Flu – hoping that by some chance – the Ghost of Christmas present might pass this new virus right over our house and onto some family who deserved it less.

My hopes however were unfounded and I got what I deserved.  For rather than being the carrier of the dreaded H1N1 to those I loved and cherished I and my family were the recipients of some dreaded Ohio strain of the common flu.  That night Jake (thing 1) woke up in a pool of vomit, the next day Grady (thing 2) joined the party. 

The following day, with both the twins feeling somewhat better and no longer projectile vomiting we embarked for our journey home.  We have the trip down to a science, I have blogged about it before and will spare you the details of the trip, however let me just say that we have never had four of our family members get violently ill while we were in the midst of the 10+ hour drive home.

With over half the trip to go, Rylee lost it – all over everything.  After a pit stop, change of clothes, filling of two kitchen garbage bags (which I paid $3,000 for at a gas station somewhere in Kentucky) with a variety of puke covered items we got back on the road.  Rylee feeling terrible and her parents feeling worse for her.

Then one hour later Kade joined the party, suddenly and without warning!  So two more garbage bags later (no further cost as I got 15 bags for $3,000) we got back on the road – two kids moaning and two parents wishing we could take their places.

But don’t worry – we both got too.  I will save you any more details as this has been a fairly disgusting post.  Let’s just say that Daddy got what he deserved.  Mommy got sick for the first time in our eleven year marriage.  Then we somehow managed to juggle two healthy twins and two sick kids from the time we got home at 3am on Sunday morning until we both felt quite a bit better this morning.

Suffice it to say – I miss Halloween. 

I’m also grateful for health and for my wife because truth be told – I think the only thing I did yesterday to help out was make a piece of toast.   Which I then ate.

God is good – especially when he allows little things like the flu to remind you of how good you have it.

Josh

Click Here to Watch Video with Sound (sound doesn’t work on video below)

Click Here to Watch Video with Sound (sound doesn’t work on video above)

Our family is very musical.  Please note that I didn’t say musically talented – just musical. 

We love all kinds of music.  So most evenings find the living room alive with jumping children (and daddy) grooving to a quite diverse arrangement of artists and styles.  My son loves David Crowder and Matt Redman (like his daddy) – he also loves Journey and The Beatles (like his daddy), he also loves Green Day, U2, and for the last week Tokio Hotel (like his Daddy).

This last group was accidentaly discovered at the tale end of a musical event we recently DVR’d.  Quickly came the Itunes download and in true Clark tradition we have worn it out.  So much so in fact that yesterday my son came downstairs mic in hand complete with a spiked head, eye makeup, and shades.  The above video is the result.

Hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it, and yes we washed the eye makeup off

God is good – I can’t believe He enjoys me as much as I enjoy my children.

One of the things that I have always enjoyed about kids is their blatent honesty.  I am not sure at what point in life we learn to begin lieing to ourselves and the rest of the world, but honesty is a quality I am trying to preserve in my children for as long as possible. 

My six year old daughter has been a constant source of unfiltered perspective on herself and the world around her.  The fact that she is quite like me has led to more than one opportunity to re-discover my own crap in a very insightful and convicting way.

Her latest gem came several nights ago as we continued our discussion regarding a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  We have done our best to raise Rylee in a home environment where she is free to discover who God has made her and where we pray that she will discover who God is himself.  Because we recognize that in our role as parents we can make her do just about anything we want her to do we have been very careful not to manipulate her into praying a prayer of surrender that she doesn’t understand nor desire.

Over the course of the last six months she has begun to ask great questions regarding what it means to have a personal relationship with Christ.  She has asked why Jesus had to die, and why God would send his children to hell.  She understands sin and that she is a sinner.  In fact, the last question she asked me revealed that she understands just about everything she needs to on the subject.

I was tucking her in and could tell there was something on her mind.  When I asked her what she was thinking she inquired “why does Jesus have to be so bossy?“.  I knew immediately where this was coming from, you see the night before she had asked both Heidi and I if we had gotten saved (made a decision to follow Christ with our lives).  We both answered that we had and she asked how we did it.  I then explained that it simply required belief that Jesus was God, that you were a sinner, that He died and rose again to forgive us of our sins, and a genuine surrender of one’s life to His control.  I explained that Jesus not only wanted to forgive us of our sins and save us from hell, but also to know us and be the boss of our lives.

That last one was the sticking point.  She had wondered aloud why Jesus had to be in control.  I explained that it was because He created us and knew what was best for us and that His desire for control in our lives was only because He knew that if we did what we wanted to do we would destroy our own lives.  I explained further that obedience to His will and plan for our lives was the only way we could experience the life God intended for us.  She said OK and that we could talk more about it later.

She must of thought about it most of that next day – it seems that for her, like me, the idea of surrender is a difficult thing.  She gets it – now it’s just a matter of her being willing to give control of her little life over to my heavenly Daddy.  I’m praying that she does as soon as possible but am committed to allowing it to be her decision and in His time.

When you talk to your heavenly Father today, do me a favor and pray for my little girl – and her daddy.  That we would both be willing to yield our lives in surrender to Him. 

Her for the first time and me for the millionth.

God is Good – thanks for reading. 

Josh