Before dinner..

Mixing up quiche for dinner

Raining and storming outside

Four children doing "laps" around the rooms

Laughter and noise filling the air

Faces full of smiles

Watching our 5 year old run after her older three siblings

Running

Something she couldn't do smoothly just two months ago

Siblings

Learning how to play together

Having fun playing chase

Simple things that bring joy

A house that is not spotless

Window panes full of fingerprints

Sand all over the deck

Simple meals on paper plates

Crushed laundry and digging through baskets

Piles of schoolwork to plan on my desk

Seeing the smiles of our youngest two as they run

All worth it

Realizing once again what is important--

People

Not things

Praying that God will help many to feel His heart for the fatherless
the preciousness of each child
"A Father to the fatherless, 
a defender of widows, 
is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families...."
Psalm 68:5-6