Sunny in Philadelphia

Although Brian and I spent a couple of days in Philadelphia for a wedding last year, neither one of us got to really see the city as much as we wanted. We decided to take advantage of our close proximity to this historical gold mine (we're only an hour away) and had a great weekend soaking up the beautiful weather while learning about the beginning of our nation.

It was incredible to see, over and over again, the very clear objectives of our godly forefathers. Nearly every decision they made in regard to their vision of America was inspired by Scripture. Truth is inscribed all over the city - 

- from the inscription on the Liberty Bell ("Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. - Lev. 25:10") 

- to the burial stone marking the graves of seven Declaration signers ("... with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence") 

- to the Declaration of Independence ("that all men... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...") 

America truly is a country unlike any other - there is no other civilization on this planet that was created by Christians for religious freedom. Although the US may have strayed from our forefathers' original intentions, it is still an immeasurable blessing to be a citizen of this great nation.

Below I've put a few highlights of our trip into a slideshow - if you click on it, you can view the pictures at a larger size. One of our favorite finds was the Reading Terminal Market, where we stumbled upon a live cooking demonstration by Adam Gertler, who was a finalist in the most recent season of The Next Food Network Star. He was making Mexican breakfast burritos and we were able to sample them - yum! We also got to run in Rocky's footsteps up the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Another favorite moment was standing in the very room that the Declaration of Independence was signed in - it was pretty surreal. And of course, we were very excited to eat an authentic Philly cheesesteak at Jim's Steaks.

On another note, please say a prayer for our friends Patrick and Holly Briscoe and their new baby girl, Addison. Holly was almost 28 weeks when they packed up their home in Kansas City to move to Longview, TX last week. When they arrived in Longview on Friday, Holly went into the doctor because Addison wasn't moving, and they ended up finding low amniotic fluid so they had to rush her to labor and delivery. Addison was born via c-section a few hours later at 1 lb. 11 oz. and 13.5 inches long. She and Holly are doing fine, but as you can imagine, they will both be weathering some obstacles these next few months.