Summer nights and bug butt lights.

Last night we let the babes stay up late. We made s’mores. We laid in the grass and found dinosaurs and rabbits in the clouds. We listened to the sounds of summer. We saw three bats and one hawk.

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We were waiting for dark to catch lightning bugs. But dark came, and no bugs. Daddy googled. Apparently there is a small window in the early summer for them. That was literally the main event requested by the babes. So there was devastation.

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Without any prompting or thought, Jovie prayed out loud. “Dear God. I want a lightning bug.”

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And wouldn’t you know, one stinking lightning bug appeared right after? You can’t make this stuff up. We caught it in a jar. And it’s name is Tooty and it had a sleepover with the girls.

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I’m constantly amazed at how God continues to build up my girls’ faith in moments like that. He hears them. He’s not a wish granting factory but He chooses to romance them. He is already drawing them into a beautiful relationship with Him, which is a prayer I’ve prayed since before they were born.

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I’d be lying if I didn’t also think about the tragedy that comes with growing up—our inability to have a genuine faith like theirs, our forgetfulness to turn to Him immediately in our devastation, our watchful eyes to see the beauty in Him drawing us near.

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What an amazing night. And with that, we bid goodbye to our summer of 2018, (God) you were so good to us.