Monday, April 9, 2012

My first official blog posting, how exciting! I started an electronic journal when I was in the hospital last year with placenta previa. Madison Grace is now with us and we just celebrated her first Easter! Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating Abigail's first Easter. Last year we took a trip to Virginia for Easter to be with my family and for my aunt to meet Abigail She was only 5 months old, 5 months Easter day in fact. Now she is a wonderful 16 month full of energy and joy little girl! Madison is 2 months old and such a sweetie!

Saturday before Easter Sunday I took Abigail to her first Easter egg hunt. It was sponsored by a friends church with the theme Hunt for Hope. I loved the theme because we all are seeking "hope". What better hope than the hope we have in Jesus Christ! After all isn't Easter all about celebrating His Resurrection, not about bunnies and candy! We missed the food and bounce houses but we made it just in time for the hunt. Abigail didn't know what to do and was distracted by all the people and bunnies walking around. I walked around with her and helped her pick up the 11 eggs and then we watched the others briefly and decided to head to the park for some fun. I felt badly for her because it seemed like her first egg hunt was a flop. Daddy and Madison weren't there and we missed most of the event! We had fun at the park and she just loved hanging out with the bigger kids. It was heavy on my heart about her not having fun at the hunt so I prayed about it and decided why not do our own Hunt for Hope Hanson style! So I went online and used an idea from a woman online and just expanded on it. I took 12 large plastic eggs numbered and filled them with symbols representing the story of Easter. For example I took a olive cross that I got from my trip to Jerusalem and put it in the egg as a symbol of the crusifiction along with the scripture:

(John 19:18-19)
¹⁸ There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

¹⁹ Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

I also took 6 large eggs and put little cards in each with a butterfly (symbolizing "new creation" and a Prize #). All the other smaller eggs were filled with candy. When the girls were done collecting all their eggs in the bags that I made for each of them we all went to the front of the house to open the eggs. I had the girls give me all the eggs numbered 1-12 and we opened one at a time in sequence to tell the story of Easter. My husband did a great job at telling the girls the story. Unfortunately I had to miss much of it to go in the house and feed Madison but what I saw was awesome! I had our camera set on the wrong setting when I was taking the photos so many didn't come out. :-( I am sad because I didn't get photos of the girls or us all dressed up. As usual we were in a hurry to get to dinner and by the time I was feeling better (I suddenly fell ill shortly after arriving) we missed our photo opt because Abigail was having a melt down (short nap earlier). As Bill said we will have to reenact it because the girls looked stunning!

This Easter we went to Chris's house, Bill's sister and had a wonderful dinner prepared by her.

Hunt for Hope 2012 Easter Egg Hunt Hanson Style.

Auntie Chris with Madison for the first time!

Auntie Chris helping Abigail hunt for eggs.

Abigail's cousins on the hunt!

Abigail's first jelly bean!

Bill demonstrating how Christ was put on the cross.

Abigail kept throwing her eggs onto the pavement like it was a game. :-)

Madison getting fed by her G-tube while we sit and relax after the egg hunt.

Madison wide awake taking everything in.

Madison ready for night time with her first Easter sleeper with bunny feet.

Thank you Lord for your sacrifice on that cross so that we may have life and life more abundantly! Praise the Lord He is Risen!