Thanks Adam! Your work is inspiring and faith-building.

Yet heartwarming.

He is still good.

Hope, you are loved by your family and you always will be! Happy 1st birthday!

Several photos at 11 days old were taken by Beth from sugarrushphotography.com. Thanks Beth!

Thank you all for walking this journey with us and for supporting us through a challenging year.

Here is a reposting of Lauren’s Turkey Song from last year. Enjoy!

But after I saw this on Friday, I was determined to not let another weekend pass without capturing at least a few unmemorable moments with my girls. So enjoy the out-of-focus, snot-running-down-Hope’s-nose, gum-hanging-out-of-Lauren’s-mouth and booty-ful shots that made for just another day!

Carlos, thank you for the reminder that sometimes you just need to pull out the camera and shoot! When you capture an ordinary day…you just might witness some extraordinary love.

More video letters coming soon!

Dave replied, “When you stare death in the face, it stares back at you.”

(Dave busts out with great quotes on a regular basis. )

Exactly. Carmen’s life gave us a real sense of how temporary and short our lives are. Even if I live to be 100 years old, that is such a short time compared to eternity. So, what am I doing to make a difference? What am I doing that really counts?

I am so inspired by Francis Chan right now. Francis was the pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, CA. This past April, he resigned. He and his wife sold their house and are spending a few months in India with their four kids, helping the poor. Lisa, his wife, posts updates on their blog. Francis and Lisa have been an inspiration to me for a while: they give away 90% of their income, they give away his book royalties, and they lived (before they just sold) in a tract house in a down-and-out neighborhood.

None of that sounds particularly easy to me.

I fight the desire for my own comfort, ease and pleasure on a daily basis.

I’m grateful to Carmen for making me realize that I should fight the desire to make my whole life about my own comfort, ease and pleasure.

So, what are we going to do now? We don’t know. We keep plugging away, getting ourselves ready to go and do whatever God has next for us. And we keep praying that God will make us willing and ready for His best.

My favorite song lyrics right now come from Hillsong’s Hosanna.

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

Chicken Stroganoff

1 tablespoon butter
1 medium chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon dried sage
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 (8-ounce) package pre-sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tablespoon flour
Cooked rice (I believe that stroganoff is typically served over egg noodles but I prefer rice.)

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; saute 5 minutes or until tender. Add sage, salt, pepper, and mushrooms; saute 5 minutes or until mushrooms begin to brown. Spoon mixture into a large bowl.

Combine 1/4 cup flour and paprika in a shallow dish. Cut chicken into strips. Dredge chicken strips in flour mixture; shake off the excess flour mixture. Heat oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute 4 minutes or until chicken is done. Add chicken to mushroom mixture.

Add broth to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Reduce heat to medium-low. Place sour cream in a small bowl; sprinkle with 1/2 tablespoon flour. Stir with a whisk until combined. Stir sour cream mixture into broth mixture. Stir in chicken mixture; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Salt and pepper taste. Serve over cooked rice.

* Since I always seem to have some sort of recipe dilemma, today was no exception. I got all the way to adding chicken broth to the pan only to discover that I didn’t have any chicken broth, not even a chicken bullion cube! I found an old can of chicken noodle soup in the pantry. By old I mean a few, ahem, years. (Have no fear. When I make food for others I do NOT use old or questionable ingredients!) It smelled OK so I used 1/2 cup of broth strained from chicken noodle soup. It worked. Oh and I used basmati rice because that’s my favorite.

A delicious creamy concoction of chicken and mushrooms!

While I was making the stroganoff dish, I was listenting/watching Francis Chan.

Very inspiring. Convicting. And disconcerting, in a good way.

Video: He Never Lets Go

Song: Our God Is In Control, performed by Kerri Kuiters

Carmen’s Eulogy, written and communicated by Wes Coddington

Video: Letter to Carmen, written and communicated by Tina Lutz

Song: How Great Thou Art, performed by Lauren Taylor

Pastoral Message, prepared and communicated by Dr. Frank Pedreira

Video Slide Show: With Hope

Note For Carmen, written and communicated by Lauren Coddington

Moving on now. Thanks for your patience!

This is not at all how
We thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you’ve gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile
And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but …

Slide show set to the song “With Hope” by Steven Curtis Chapman:

We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
‘Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no…
We wait with hope
And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope
We let go with hope

Here is the revised version that we showed at Carmen’s funeral:

Since the video of Carmen’s funeral service is so long, we’ll be posting individual segments over the next few weeks.