The Horn Family: May 2021

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Emmy's Piano Recital

Emmy and her amazing piano instructor, Ms. Kristen! After covid, they did online classes for most of the year, but came together for an in-person recital!

Proud of our girl!

Grandpa Jack's 93rd birthday!

We all descended on Grandpa's house for a 93rd birthday celebration!

Back Row: Auntie Annette, Nicholas, Mom, Dad, Auntie Joanie, Uncle Mike, Jacob, Uncle Michael, Claire, Hannah, Emmy, James, Justin Kristin
Front(ish) Row: Ali, Juj, Grandpa, Caroline, Kris

Grandpa sure does love hanging with Nick and JP!

It's not a family gathering without a show!

Friday, May 28, 2021

A friend of mine on the Prayer Team, who is also a twin mom, asked if Kris and I are identical or fraternal twins. I gave her my spiel about how we didn't know for sure, but assumed that we are fraternal because we look different and also because mom believed Grandpa Odell, the pathologist at the hospital, had told her as much after we were born. My friend encouraged us to be tested because "DNA can express differently." That was all I needed to hear before I bought us a DNA test. We decided the most fun way to learn the results would be a good ole cake reveal at our birthday party. I took the liberty to decide that the frosting on the inside our our birthday cake would be yellow if we were identical (primary color/monozygotic twins) or purple if we were fraternal (secondary color/dizygotic twins). After a delicious Mexican dinner at our favorite El Nido, we went back to the Sackies for the cake cutting. We polled everyone's guesses and then there was cheering and chanting as we cut the cake to reveal...YELLOW! There was a collective shock in the room...most especially from Mom! It's even more evident to me now how creative God is, that despite our DNA being the same, we are each so uniquely made. God is GOOD!

Collecting our sample!

Last Day of School!

Oh my goodness was the last day of school fun! It also happened to be our 39th birthday! It was party after party after party all day!

Caroline Sacksteder, Kindergarten graduate!

2nd grade girls' party at Teenie's house!

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Discipleship

Through the Parents in Prayer team at school, I met a mama named Gretchen. I learned so much about prayer sitting alongside her in our meetings. One day, I asked her how she grew in her faith and she told me about a Discipleship class that she did through her church, The Rock, and recommended that I look into it. I signed up for the next session, not really knowing what it was all about. After the first class, I realized that it was going to be quite a commitment, though I was determined to follow through. It turned into such a beautiful experience. that eventually led to three different levels over the span of a year. I learned about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. I learned about prayer and different ways to encounter God. Prayer, reading the Word, journaling, worship, serving and time spent outside in Creation were some of the ways. I had exercises to complete each day and among them was observing nature. At this time, a mama deer and her baby fawn made regular visits outside my window. I loved watching them in the early hours of the morning while my family slept. After some time, the mama deer became injured with, what appeared to be a broken leg, and while my heart ached for her, I was inspired by her determination to keep up with her baby. Despite her brokenness, she pressed on.