My friend Jennifer and I took our little girls for a walk to the beach today. We started off on the steepier, sunnier side of the river cove near her house. Her one-year-old daughter had a life jacket on and enjoyed going in the water with her mom, and I sat on the bank with Rilla, just putting her legs in the water. There was a lady near us with a few young kids playing at the river edge. After a while it was too hot to not be in the shade, so we moved across the cove and spent some time in the water there. Jennifer offered to let Rilla wear her daughter's life jacket so that she could go in deeper with her, since Rilla was enjoying the water and wanted to be more immersed but I wasn't wearing a swimsuit. I thought about it but thought it would be an inconvenience to put the life jacket on. About this time, Jennifer's husband who had just joined us and was in the water said, "There's something wrong," and he began to swim across the cove. We watched from afar as a small crowd gathered. We could hear a woman sounding really upset but we couldn't tell what she was saying. Brett came walking back to us after a few minutes and said, "That boy just drowned." The paramedics arrived soon and we watched and prayed from across the cove. I couldn't hold back and so I went over and sat down with the woman who was wailing. It was the lady we had been sitting by before we moved to a different area. It had only been ten or fifteen minutes after we moved away that her grandson wandered too deep into the water and disappeared before she realized he was gone. She panicked when she didn't see him, and a few men went in after him and found him. I think they tried to perform CPR before the paramedics came. I went down and sat with the lady and prayed for her as she cried out to God and as the paramedics worked on the blue boy behind us. I don't know yet if they were able to resuscitate him. They took him by ambulance and I think they may have gotten a pulse. We recognized one of the paramedics as being a friend from our church, so we hope to find out later from him what happened.

I haven't been in a lot of situations like this one, but when I am, it's like I am compelled to comfort. Just to sit and be with and intercede for the people involved. Like the forty or so people standing around at a distance and watching all this, I felt totally overwhelmed and chaotic inside when this all started. As we prayed, though, it was like I just couldn't stop myself, I had to go over and be with this lady. I figured she could hit me if she wanted me to go away, but I had to go over there. Rilla was quiet and calm in my arms despite the deep wails coming from the lady as we sat with her, and I was glad for that. The Lord was present and I am glad that I was there in those desperate minutes before they all left for the hospital. Still, Jennifer and I couldn't help but wonder later what would have happened if we had still been nearby when the boy drowned. I have a peace about it, that we were in the right places when we needed to be, but I am shocked and quieted to realize how fragile life is. This boy was probably four or five years old, and I said hi to him while he was playing, and just a short while later he wandered in too deep and drowned. Among other things, I am stunned by my own stupidity at thinking there was no need for Rilla to have a life jacket as we take her in and out of the water this summer. I went and bought one after we left the beach and I am pretty sure I will be erring on the over-cautious side with her for quite a while after this.

It is the Lord who gives breath and life. I am confident of this and confident of His timing and goodness. I know He can bring good out of this. Please pray for this family. Pray for the grandmother, the mother, and the sister who were all there this afternoon. Pray for this little boy. And if you plan to go swimming tomorrow like we do, please oh please oh please put life jackets on your children.

UPDATE: The little boy is alive and expected to make a full recovery. Praise the Lord!

Have you ever played a board game - or really, any game - in which one of the other players has to leave and so you fill in for them? So you end up playing your own part as well as theirs? Well, that is how I feel when I take Rilla to social events. I couldn't put my finger on it until last night but that is exactly how I feel when I am trying to carry on an adult conversation while taking care of a six-month-old and fielding questions on her behalf, and of course trying also to speak for myself. It's just like playing two roles in a game where everyone else is just playing one. Except that instead of something like Monopoly, I feel like I'm playing Dutch Blitz and the conversation just keeps rolling whether or not the sentences I half-say make any sense. And so inevitably, I find myself driving home afterward and literally cringing and blushing as some of the things I have said come creeping back unbidden to my mind. I said what? And I followed it up with that? Oh man. On the plus side, it makes me feel like I must have really good friends to not point these things out more often. Either that or they just feel really sorry for me.

The hard drive on my computer is out of space and I can't figure out how to interface with my new external hard drive, so I haven't been able to upload pictures for a while. It's driving me crazy. I have to go through and delete old ones here and there to make room for new ones, and since I try to only keep pictures that I think are worth keeping, well, it is kind of frustrating. I did upload a few today though because it's Rilla's half-birthday today and I wanted to brag about her newest skill.

Keith with his bees


our cute little nephew


out for dinner on Father's Day




Now here are the ones from this morning. Rilla is suddenly much more active in this last week. She has been rolling over one way for a few months, but since discovering how to roll the other way just a week ago, she can now roll all over, push up on her hands and knees, scoot backwards for long distances, and, my personal favorite, do boy push-ups! She gets up on just her hands and tippy toes, which is pretty impressive to me. I think she's trying to figure out whether crawling is supposed to be on knees or on toes. It's incredibly entertaining.