I love trees. Any kind, although dogwoods and Japanese maples are my very favorite. Almost every time I go to Wal-Mart or Lowes lately I end up in the tree section. Not that we don't already have 50 foot trees in our yard -- we do and they are beautiful. I could always use a few more. I remember Randy got me a tree for my birthday a few years ago, a gorgeous Japanese maple. I know, some people get perfume, dinner out, flowers -- I get a tree. But I couldn't have been happier.

When we started SpiritLife, Pastor Clyde Miller bought our little community a tree which we were going to plant when we got a permanent facility (little did we know.....). Since we didn't exactly get land and a building, he stuck the tree in a bucket outside his office in a stairwell and kind of forgot about it. One day, in the middle of the winter, he walked up that stairwell and saw that the tree was blooming! Incredible. We took that as a prophetic sign that God really liked us. We never got land, never planted the tree, but something definitely grew up within in those days. It made us who we are and we are so grateful for those times.

We were at Home Depot today on a family mission and I got caught away in the tree department. I'm like a kid in a candy store. I just walk and gaze, wishing that someday I could take one home as my very own. I keep waiting for a bunch of them to go on clearance. You'll know they did when you see a forest in our backyard!!