Happy Birthday, SON!!

September 18, 2003, my sweet little boy was born. I can hardly believe that 4 years has passed! God has given our family such a precious gift in this little man. I can't imagine life without him!
Yesterday my husband was able to take the day off from work and we all had a fun day together. We went to McDonald's for lunch----which really is a treat for all of us. It costs $6 for a happy meal, so it's not something we do very often. We had to interrupt the fun to go grocery shopping, since it was our first opportunity in a long while. We're having a small birthday party soon, so we needed supplies too! Then, we headed to the Biblical Zoo. This is the same zoo that we took our daughter to on her birthday. It really is a very nice zoo and the animals are well taken care of. We got there only an hour and 45 minutes before it closed, so we had to hurry through, but we got to see everything we wanted to. Since it was later in the day, the weather was lovely and we all had a great time. I thought I'd post a few pics of the animals and such:

This is a really neat exhibit they have of prairie dogs. There are tunnels all underneath for you to crawl through and then pop up into these viewing domes to get an up-close look at the animals. Hey, look----you're actually getting a picture of my kids in this one!







My husband and I like watching the elephants. We were happy to see that we got there in time to watch them getting their exercise for the day. This elephant was pulling this rock around like it was nothing. God's creation is so amazing!











I liked the way the giraffes looked in front of the
sunset. This zoo has a whole African safari exhibit with a huge open area for the animals to run around in. We got to see them having fun as a couple of zebras were chasing some antelope. Of course, as soon as I pulled out my camera to record some video, they stopped for a break!








I thought this was an interesting view of the Israeli countryside. Maybe not beautiful, but it is vast. You can get a lot of detail on these pictures if you click on them to enlarge.







And finally, more about the birthday boy. We like to space his gifts out all through the day so he has a chance to play with each thing with his full attention for a little while. But all day he kept asking, "Where's my sword?" (Remember a previous post about how much he wanted a sword, and how he was going to ask God for one?) I asked him, "Have you been asking God for a sword?" I knew he had, because I've heard him pray for one. He told me that he had been asking him, so I told him to be patient because God knew what he wanted. After dinner I told my son that there was one present left for him to open. I told him that this one was from God, and God wrote something to him about it. I read him Ephesians 6:13-18, about the whole armour of God. His excitement grew as he heard each item, and then finally heard "sword". I finished the passage and then told him he could open the package.
He was so excited!!! He pulled out each piece and my husband helped him put everything on. He was going around the house all night saying, "I'm a Christian Soldier!" He kept coming up to my husband wanting him to throw fiery darts that he could block with his shield. I asked him if he would like to thank someone for this gift. He bowed his head and said, "Dear God, thank you for my sword and for letting me go to the zoo. Amen."