What a weekend!!!

We spent the weekend in Lincoln because Sunshine had her All-State Choir concert.  There were 442 high school students from across the great state of Nebraska in the choir.  The kids came from 121 different schools (I didn't know Nebraska had that many schools!).  The sound from the choir was unbelievable.  So crisp and clear, amazing dynamics, perfect harmonies.  We had chills many times as we sat and listened.  Can't imagine what the heavenly chorus will sound like when the voices from every tribe and tongue and people and nation gather around the throne to sing praise to our King! 

Here are some pics of the Sunshine and her friend Eva who also made the All-State Choir.

The remaining six of us all headed to Lincoln on Friday evening and stayed in a hotel.  We got a sweet suite (three TVs!!) so we chilled in the room after an awesome supper at Cracker Barrel.

 Here are The Big Fella and Eddie Joe playing a stirring game of checkers at Cracker Barrel.  Much strategy is employed with every move.

 Rye Bread and T-Bird chillin' in the sweet suite!  They had secretly stowed away their Gamecube.  I don't remember seeing them the rest of the night.

On Saturday, we headed to the mall for a while and then we headed over to the Pierces.  Leanne is my cousin and I've know Kent since we were on the same dorm floor in college - we are Harper 9 brothers, a brotherhood that runs pretty deep, he would probably give me one of his kidneys because of our dorm floor brotherhood.

We spent time getting caught up with the Pierces.  They have had an amazingly difficult past year and a half so it was really good to hear the details first-hand and hear how God has faithfully led them through an unimaginable trial.  They have tasted both the bitterness of a painful trial and the sweetness of God's unfailing mercies over the last year and a half.  They are faithful servants, ministering to kids at the Nebraska campus through Campus Crusade for Christ.

And then, are you kidding me, we got to finally meet the Kollar family!!!  Click here to access her amazing blog - she always has the best music around!  (BTW - We're sure their name is pronounced "Collar" even though they claim it's pronounced "Kohler".  We know we are right because we have been following their blog for quite some time and within our family have been pronouncing it "Collar" all along.  I don't think their pronunciation is automatically correct just because it's their name.  It's unlikely that we've been wrong all this time.  So within our family, we are correctly pronouncing it "Collar".)

The Kollars (say it with me, "Collar") adopted beautiful little Luci a year and a half ago from Ethiopia.  They are also on staff with Campus Crusade at the University along with the Pierces.  So we share a lot of commonalities together (except the pronunciation of their last name).  It was amazing to hold little Luci after having a such a heart for little Ethiopian orphans and after seeing so many pictures of her on their blog.  She is really a cutie.  We can't wait until we can hold our own little beauty!

Below are some pics of Heather and I with little Luci and several of all of us together.  What a fun time!  (I don't think the Kollars know it yet, but they are now our BFF's.)

 Heather and Luci.  Since Luci is almost 2, maybe our little one will be similar in size.  I don't know if anyone can have hair as amazing as Luci's though! Wow!  Priceless!

Nordstroms and Kollars - BFF's

(My Harper 9 brother Kent is not in the pic because he is taking it.  But I think we got most everyone else in the there though.)

After time with the Pierces and Kollars, we headed to Sunshine's concert.  As I mentioned above, it was beyond description.  Sunshine will have amazing memories of the concert for years to come.  Grandma and Grandpa joined us for the concert too.  It was a lot of fun to have them along.

After the concert we had dinner at Valentino's.  It is a VERY popular pizza restaurant in Lincoln, but when we got there at 6:30 pm on a Saturday night, there was hardly anybody there!  Why?  Because the Huskers were playing against A&M on TV!  So everyone was at home.  We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves!  (In actuality, the team spent more time yelling at the refs than playing football - it was a painful game!)

After dinner, we headed back to Fremont to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house for the night.  We slept in this morning, and just hung around, drank coffee, ate Grandma's amazing cinnamon bread, and just chatted.  It was a very relaxing morning for a very tired family.  We finally dragged Sunshine out of bed at around 11:00 am and then headed back home after an exhausting, but very fun-filled weekend.

Peaches - we can't wait to have you join us for these kinds of weekends.  We know God will bring you in His time.  Until then, we continue to pray for you, that God would supply all of your needs, heal your heart, and bring you home soon.