I have a whole new appreciation of mothers day now. Having been side by side with Heather watching her mother our little girl, I can appreciate how much work goes into it. And I am amazed at how God has created mothers to be so in-tune with the needs of our little babies. A good examle came the other day when we took Elise out in the jogging stroller. We needed to keep her out of the sun, because young babies aren't supposed to have any sun exposure (I might have figured that out eventually) but they also aren't supposed to wear any sunblock yet (I never in a thousand years would've known that!!) That's just one of a thousand examples of how God has gifted Heather to care for our little girl! She does such a good job, and she pours her heart and soul into Elise. Being a new parent has caused me to stop and think more about other mothers. As i talked to my mom today, I wondered how in the world did she fasten twins (my sister and I) into carseats in the back and transfer us to the huge stroller every time she wanted to go somewhere all while keeping us pacified! Motherhood is hard work! God bless you mothers!!

We celebrated mothers day by going to Meijer gardens (that's mey-ee-jur to you Madison) which is a huge and popular garden and sculpture park here in Grand Rapids. The big flower-of-choice here in western michigan is the tulip, mainly because there is a large dutch population here and dutch people like tulips! (They even have a tulip festival here every year...complete with wooden-shoe wearing dutch dancers). The city of Holland Michigan (where the tulip festival is) is so serious about the tulips, that we found out they hire something like ten people to work year-round on planting the tulip bulbs. And to think, they bloom for a couple weeks, and then they're gone! So much work for those beautiful flowers and they're gone just like that! So Meijer gardens was replete with tulips today, and we took advantage of our short early-may window to see them! I was amazed at all the beautiful colors and varieties. The flowers reminded me of a verse, which I will post after the slideshow:

"Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow:  they do not labor or spin thread.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, won't he do much more for you--you of little faith?"  Matthew 6:27-30