Waves

Dear Carter,

Oh my goodness, so much has happened since I last wrote...I don't even really know where to start. I guess that first of all, I had a hard time with missing you after your birthday. It was completely expected which was part of the reason why we scheduled our vacation for this week. I'm so glad that we did because the vacation ended up feeling healing to me...not quite like the feeling that our trips to Montana gives me, but certainly close.

Before we left on Monday, we went to church on Sunday, and I was really proud to see your brother following along and singing the songs. He's never really shown much interest in actually participating in church, so it was awesome to see his Faith growing. He has been talking a lot about God, Jesus, and the Bible in general. In fact, while we were in our hotel this week we looked out the window to see the rainbow above. The ironic thing was that we had just finished watching the news about some flooding, so when Mikey saw the rainbow he yelled "see, that's God's promise that he won't flood us again". I must admit that I felt my heart swell with pride at that comment, and it swelled even more when Jovie yelled "Hi Carter!" to the rainbow. That was only one of the moments when I felt you were really with us on this trip.

We left on Monday afternoon, and after arriving in California and getting checked into our hotel, we took a trip out to Huntington Beach. I LOVE the beach...like REALLY LOVE the beach. If I lived close to the beach, I'm sure that I'd be there every single day. While we were there, we noticed this butterfly kite. Your brother and sister loved the beach too. Jovie collected a ton of sea shells. She could have probably filled up my entire backpack if I would have let her. Mikey and Daddy played in the water which was a lot of fun for your brother until he felt the chilly wind hit him.

Afterward we walked along the pier and ate lunch at the restaurant on the end of it. We even got to watch the sun set over the ocean. It was another one of those moments when I wondered what Heaven must be like for you since there are places on this Earth which are so awe inspiring.