Ethan's 2 Birthdays

Ethan had his 5th birthday party in April!! It was an army theme, and Col. Chandler (Jeff's dad) and Grammy made that party rock! The games, the cake, the decor...it was all fabulous. I'm very lucky to have such wonderful party planners...really all I did was send out the evite and order the BBQ for lunch!

Ethan received a BB gun for his gift from us, which he totally did not expect because we kept telling him he had to be 10 to get one. Jeff set it up just like the scene in A Christmas Story when Ralphie gets his BB gun. Jeff even wore his "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out" shirt for the occasion. Below is a video of Ethan opening his gift.



Ethan's second birthday happened this past Tuesday night, May 4 (Uncle Jason's bday!) as he was born again, this time into the family of God. Being in a believing family, he has been exposed to the love of Christ, the doctrines of sin, repentance, forgiveness, and grace since birth, and we have all had many conversations about what it means to be a true believer in Jesus. How we come to Him totally unworthy because of our sin, and exchange our sin for His righteousness...His perfect righteousness that we could never begin to dream of earning or deserving...just becoming righteous and accepted by the Father through our simple belief in Jesus as our Savior...accepting our position as children of the King!

Ethan began asking Jeff about taking communion while Jeff was reading the Bible to E & Sydney Tuesday night. We have many times talked about how communion is for those who fully trust Jesus, and that we wait to take it until we really do believe that Jesus is our only hope, otherwise we encourage hypocrisy, and have our hearts hardened toward it. And while in the past he has said he believed in Jesus, there was something different about Tuesday night. We sensed he had a genuine understanding of his sin, his need for a Savior, his inadequacy to ever be good enough, his knowing that the love of God was not dependent on Ethan's behavior, but rather on what Jesus has done for Ethan. So we had the joy and privilege of praying to our Father with our son in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness and giving thanks for Ethan's faith.

The below verse was quoted at Ethan's baptism when he was 3 months old. How cool to see God's covenant at work in him!

Acts 2:38-39Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call."