Monday, April 24, 2006

Tori's Tour-The Lincoln Memorial

Finally!!!





The Lincoln Memorial is Great! If you look at the map of the National Mall you can see that it is all laid out in the shape of a cross. At the four ends of the cross are the White House, the Capitol Building, the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. The Washington Memorial is at the center. The Lincoln Memorial was built in Honor of Abraham (Abe) Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States. Abe Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. He was Christian that attended the local Baptist church. He went to school with his sister and was always know as a hard worker. “Honest Abe” Lincoln did not come from a wealthy family and so when he decided he wanted to be a lawyer he could not afford to go to an expensive law school and so he taught himself the law and soon became a successful lawyer. He married Mary Todd and had four children: Robert, Eddie, Willie and Tad. Sadly, only Tad lived past the age of twenty.

After serving for a short time in the military during the Black Hawk War, Lincoln became a practicing lawyer and soon made a name for himself. He ran for the Illinois state legislature in 1832 and lost. Many people told Abe that he should give up, but he would not. He ran again and won. He won the seat four consecutive times. He ran for the US House of Representatives in 1846 and won. After his two year term was over he returned home and started practicing law again. He really had no interest in returning to politics after this but one issue kept coming up. Slavery was a very sad reality for blacks living in the United States. Even though the Founding Fathers had said that “All men were created equal,” many people did not feel that that included black people. Abe did not agree. From the earliest parts of his life Abe had believed that God loved everyone and so he should too. When he was seven his parents switched churches to attend one that disagreed with slavery, and all these years later Abe still felt that slavery was wrong. This made him decide to run for President of the United States and in November of 1860, He won.

Lincoln Presidency was to be the only presidency in the history of the United States that was defined by war. Even before Abe was really President people started trying to break up the United States so that they could keep their slaves. But President Abe wanted everyone to be free. This began what is known as the “United States Civil War.” A “Civil” war means a war between two different groups of people in the same country. Lots of countries have had civil wars but the United States Civil war was really bad. Basically, a lot of people in the South wanted to keep slaves to run their farms and businesses and the people in the North wanted to set everybody free and so a fight broke out between the North and the South. . The Army from the North was led by a man named Ulysses S. Grant and the Army from the South was led by a man Named Robert E. Lee (We will learn more about these men when we visit the Capitol Building and Arlington National Cemetery). This fight lasted for over four years and many people died. In the end, the South gave up and the North won. Near the end of the war, President Lincoln wrote a letter, known as the Emancipation Proclamation, which set all of the slaves free.

But not everyone was happy with how the war ended. Soon after it was over President Lincoln was killed by people who had wanted to the South to win. Many people were so sad that he was gone and yet thankful for what he had done that they decided to build a memorial to him in Washington DC.

The Lincoln memorial was finished in 1922.

These are the steps leading up to the MemorialThis is the Marble statue of President Lincoln that is in the center of the memorial

On the wall to the right of Lincoln's statue is his Second Inaugural Speech.

To the left of the Statue is a copy of President Lincoln's most famous speech, The Gettysburg Address

This is the view looking out from the memorial, You can see the Washington monument in the distance

I love you so much and can't wait see you.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Loving the Seersucker!

Happy Easter from the Brooks family! May His goodness, His very power to bring life from death continue to be at work in your life!
Uncle Andy journeyed with us into the Garden of Prayer. Our boys could not love him more. They scream, clap, and show so much joy anytime we get to spend time with him!
Is there anyway to express how much I love these three guys?
We are crazy about these kids...and putting them in seersucker just sends us over the top!
Payton loved this cross sticker. He put it onthe second we walked into church and pointed it out to everyone .

Easter!

I love this picture. I was wishing we had our video camera when Payton walked in and said, "It really is empty!" You could see he was thrilled. The next shot is when Benajmin took a turn at trying to roll the stone away.




Payton quickly figured out he could grab more using something other than his basket!

Benjamin was a focused hunter and did quite well considering his brother was on wheels!

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Easter Memories

One of my earliest childhood memories is sitting in the car with my sister Kelly and singing at the top of our lungs Sandi Patti's "Was it a morning like this?" As a child I loved the song, as an adult I love the man who inspired it.

As we got ready this morning I was humming this before I even realized what I was humming. As we rushed around, as Benjamin got squash all over the carpet, as we realized we might have thrown away Benjamin's shoes, As Payton protested wearing pants to church, I couldn't help but think...it was a morning just like this...Life was being lived at full throttle by so many who had no idea the greatest thing in the world had just occurred. HE HAD RISEN! ...and nothing would ever be the same again!

May The Giver of Life bless you and yours today!

"Was it a morning like this:
When the Son still hid from Jerusalem:
And Mary rose from her bed:
To tend the Lord she thought was dead.

Was it a morning like this: When Mary walked down from Jerusalem:
And two angels stood at the tomb:
Bearers of news she would hear soon

Did the grass sing?
Did the earth rejoice to feel You again?
Over and over like a trumpet underground,
Did the earth seem to pound he is risen?
Over and over in a never ending round,
He is risen hallelujah hallelujah

Was it a morning like this?
When Peter and John ran from Jerusalem,
And as they raced toward the tomb,
Beneath their feet was there a tune

Was it a morning like this?
When my Lord looked out on Jerusalem He is risen Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!