Beyond all Understanding

RIVERSIDE, Calif., July 24, 2008—Christopher Laurie, son of Pastor Greg Laurie and Cathe Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, died this morning in a car accident in Riverside. A resident of Huntington Beach, Laurie, 33, served as the art director at Harvest Christian Fellowship for the past three years.In addition to his parents, Christopher is survived by his wife, Brittany, and daughter, Stella, as well as his brother Jonathan. Christopher and his wife are expecting another daughter in November.Memorial plans for Christopher are pending. More information will be posted to the Harvest website as details become available.


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It's always a strange mix of emotions when a Christian dies. On the one hand you're sad because selfishly you wish your loved one could be here with you to continue to share in memories and to just be around. Knowing that you'll no longer see their face is a hard realization, and usually takes quite a while to sink in. On the other hand, it's a time of rejoicing and jealousy even, for you know they're in Heaven where they belong, face to face with their God and Creator. How fantastic!

Today Greg Laurie's oldest son Christopher died. Greg Laurie is the Senior Pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship, which was my home church for many years and is where I came to a true understanding of what it is to follow Christ. I also worked at Harvest for 3 years in what has always been my favorite job. Because I attended the church for so long, and especially because of working there, I had many opportunities to interact with Pastor Greg and his family including Christopher.

Today's news came as quite a shock obviously. While I grieve with the Laurie family, I also grieve with my dear friends and family at Harvest - with whom I have never felt too far from-- until today. News like this only made me want lots of hugs from those who also understood. I won't get those hugs until October, so texts and phone calls will have to do for now. Scouring the news, reading blogs, and sending prayers and thoughts with several thousand others is pretty much what I've got right now.

Almost immediately I began to feel the "ripples" of what kind of impact this news is ultimately going to have. The Harvest Crusades are just 3 weeks away, and I have absolutely no doubt that they will go on as planned. What the devil meant for evil, I truly believe God will use for good. There is going to be significant news coverage on this "story" in Southern California and in church communities around the country. And in just the stories I've read today, every outlet has mentioned the Crusades coming up. I believe people will come just out of curiosity to hear what Greg will speak about and how he will address this tragedy. People who would never have any intention of coming otherwise will show up and will in turn hear an amazing testimony of how God is being shown Good and Just through this family and all who knew Christopher. I pray for those people who do come and that this terrible event will bring many souls to Christ... what a testimony that would be!

Everyone at Harvest knows that every year right before the Crusades, it never fails that Greg is attacked in some way. Last year he was diagnosed with Vertigo about 3 days before they began and barely had any sleep the entire weekend. In other years it's been a lost voice, or some other type of random illness. Satan is always looking for ways to sidetrack those who are sharing God's truth and this event is bound to shake the faith of a few. However, I know the Lauries will come through this awful tragedy with an even stronger faith and a very powerful testimony to share with so many more than they ever imagined.

My heart breaks for Greg, Cathe, Jonathan, Brittany, little Stella and their unborn daughter. I am sad and grieve, trying to comprehend how and why, and I hug my daughter and husband a little tighter and longer tonight because of it.

We need a name!

I've decided our blog needs a name. I'm not very good with these kinds of things, so I'm reaching out to aaaalllll our faithful readers... haha, all five of you.

My friend Stephanie's blog is called "Leave it to Weaver". Cute, right? I noticed hers links to another one called "Keeping up with the Joneses". My first blog was called "What Would You Say" after a Dave Matthews Band song, and it fit pretty well since I just talked all about the really random things that happened to me - and Dave is pretty random.

So I figure there's gotta be a cute one that can be related to Hanes. The only thing I can come up with is "Hanes Her Way" but not sure I want to name it after underwear.

Any suggestions? Winner gets something REALLY cool.... Or just a fun mention. ;)

OH! And I'll also take suggestions on a name for Harper's blog. Maybe HERS can be Hanes Her Way! Although the generic title of the blog is "baby hanes" so it could be open for either gender. I don't think our future son (yes I said it) would appreciate that name.

Happy First Anniversary!!!

To us and our house!!!

We moved in one year ago TODAY. How crazy is that... time has flown yet it also seems like Moving Day was sooooo long ago. While we LOVE our house, we have not loved all of the things it has brought with it. The yard we absolutely fell in love with has been a much bigger project to keep up with than we had anticipated. It now takes Jon a full 4 hours (at least) to mow all the grass and we have not been great about keeping up with the weeding, which means it's a couple-day project just to pull those. We do love being outside though, and it's so beautiful when it's kept up.

The other major problem we are facing is our foundation. Yes we live in Texas, and yes foundation work is pretty standard for everyone eventually here. However it's not so common on 2-year old houses, and we're not too pleased to get to be the ones to deal with it. Our cracks started appearing a month or 2 after we moved in and we've been through one round of cosmetic repair work to fix the damage including drywall and new tiles. However, the cracks started reappearing almost immediately after they were fixed, and now our bedroom door doesn't close properly, and the outside brick has a huge crack through brick and mortar. The Builder has finally agreed that the foundation is in need of repair, and the process is already underway to fix it. The foundation company has made us feel confident in that it will be a minimally invasive process, at least compared to what it could be. They will not even need to enter the house, except to do the actual measurements once the foundation is being raised, and will only dig holes through our garage floor and one on the outside of the house, which they will use to tunnel under the office. I think the 3-day procedure takes place the first week of August, and the Builder will be back out shortly thereafter to repair all the cracks AGAIN.

Of course, looking back, we might have made different choices in moving here. Now that gas prices are so high, and we have a baby (two things we didn't plan on happening when we bought this house), we probably would have chosen a smaller, more expensive house closer to both of our jobs. BUT-- we knew God brought us this house for a reason and we're confident that things will be taken care of with minimal impact on us when we decide to move from here. And we do love our house.

So, on today, our first anniversary, I'm treating the house to a full cleaning. Well... let's be honest... a pretty good cleaning. There's only so much I can do by myself with a 3-month old. I've already scrubbed the tub and shower and can I just say YUCK. How can a place we go to get clean get so dirty???? I might next tackle the baseboards and vacuum then call it a day... but we'll see what else I can find.

**UPDATE**

I went ahead and just deep cleaned the bathroom from head to toe. I mean, I even scrubbed all those little ridges in the cabinets and doors- all the funny places where lint and dust collect. Feels SO much better. Now the question is - do we think Jon will notice?

Battered and Bruised

I suppose since Jon has been married to me for almost two years, it's about time he started seeing the real me. That is to say, the real me which is the completely clutzy/accident-prone/should-be-wearing-a-full-suit-of-armor-everyday me.

I've fallen off the back of a moving pickup, walked into countless doors, get caught on any sort of knob with any part of my clothing, bump into walls, and fallen down flights of stairs multiple times.

But now... It's gettin' ugly.

A few weeks back I was throwing something away in the big trashcans in the garage and somehow managed to have the thing flip over and fall onto my foot. Mind you, these are the big cans the city gives you that people set curbsite, with the huge lids. There were 2 big bags of dog food sitting on the lid waiting to be put away, and I thought I could somehow easily lift off the lid and throw whatever it was away, then be about my business. But no - the weight of the dog food being lifted threw the balance onto the back wheels, causing the entire can to flip and fall on my foot. It happened so fast. Needless to say, my two toes next to my big toe, along with the joints on my foot turned lovely shades of blue and stayed that way for several weeks. My foot is still sore.

Tonight, just another example of how random things happen to me. First of all, there were no babies harmed in the making of this accident. I had Harper in her sling as that's become our nighttime routine to get her to sleep. She was sleeping soundly as I went about my business of cleaning up the kitchen. I was putting a case of soda into the fridge but had to pull off the cardboard opening that the fridge packs have. Well, instead of just pulling off the corrugated part to make a lovely opening for the soda, half of the entire front came off too. And with that, a can of soda fell to the ground, so while I jumped to help avoid it from landing on my foot, it smashed to the ground and burst open, spraying soda EVERYWHERE. Somehow in me jumping around trying to avoid the can, I slipped on the now-wet floor and fell straight to the ground. Thankfully (for Harper) I managed to partly catch myself on the island and fell right on my knees. The little stinker never even flinched, even as I squeeled then cried out in pain--LOUDLY.

Of course Jon was there in .28 seconds (just like he was with the trash can incident) and took the baby from me as I tried to scrape myself off the floor. Soda-soaked pants and all, I got up and looked around at the damage. Soda covering EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!! And ending up far into the outer-reaches of our kitchen, even making its way into the halls. The doors, the cabinets, the walls, the inside of the fridge... ugh. I think our floor is going to be sticky for days, no matter how much I mop it.

As of now I've got a nice swollen spot on my knee with another one forming. My back is beginning to hurt and I've just noticed a slight ache in my hand that caught the island. Oy.

Pretty sure Jon is trying not to imagine just what awaits us next.....

Saturday Project #2

Last week there was no Saturday Project. Jane, Harper and I were planning on heading to Decatur to see Aunt Nancy's store. But just about 30 mins before we were supposed to leave, she called and said she was sick in bed with a terrible sinus infection. We really wanted to see her shop, but mostly wanted to see HER, so we skipped out. Harper and I stayed home and I had then thought maybe I would make our Saturday Project to pull weeds.... but... well, it wasn't too hard to talk myself out of that one. ;)

Instead we just caught up on Mommy/Daughter time and it was WONDERFUL.

This was our Saturday Project this week:

The picture may not look like much, but believe me, the top of that file cabinet hasn't seen the light of day since before Harper was born. Paid bills, aaaaaalllll of Harper's paperwork, my medical paperwork and all kinds of other miscellaneous stuff has found its way there and stayed. Until today!! It's finally all gotten a home inside the drawers (what a concept!) with neat little labels and easy-to-find hanging folders. I feel so much better, you have no idea. Most of the paperwork already had places to go, it just needed to find its way there. But now all of Harper's things are easy to find and, for a person who lives for being organized, this makes me feel like a huge weight has been lifted - as silly as that may sound. It took us a while, and lots of singing and bouncing Harper in her bouncy chair, but we did it!

It was actually pretty fun because she's starting to laugh and smile at me all the time. But I'd get caught up in playing that the filing took longer than I anticipated.