The Gum Drop Tree

There are many things I love about our home, but one of them is our "gum drop" tree.

I mean, look at it! It's gorgeous.

Perfectly shaped.

Beautiful in every season.

And doesn't it look like a gum drop??

And it's branches are perfect to hang this little swing :)

Well, a couple of days before baby girl came into the world, there was a gust of wind.

The gum drop tree was no more.

Yep. A gust of wind did THAT to our beautiful tree.

A storm was a brewin', so Caleb went outside to get our flag down before the rain came.

There was a gust of wind and then he heard a crack!

Bye, bye tree.

One good thing that came out of our losing this amazingly gorgeous tree was that Caleb was able to use his chainsaw. Seriously, he was really excited.

Our dear neighbor came and helped with the tree removal :) 

The man at work.

It took days for us to get the tree down to a stump.

Mainly because Adelaide was born 2 days after the tree incident.

Some of the young men from our youth group at church came and helped though, which was such a blessing!

So now, instead of a beautiful gum drop tree in our front yard, we have….a stump.

Not as grandiose as the tree, by any means.

Oh, well.

It will do for now.

At least I got a picture of it in every stage! haha

and I am very grateful that nobody was hurt when it fell.

It was so bizarre that a GUST OF WIND could tear down that much of our tree.

Do you see the gospel application here??

Don't you love when real life events help you understand a gospel principle better?

Think about it.

You saw how gorgeous that tree was from the first picture.

It looked strong. It held my baby boy in his swing many, many times.

Then why was it that a mere gust of wind took down 1/3 of the tree?

It was weak on the inside.

We can be doing all the outside actions that we need to be doing, 

but if our testimonies are weak, then when that "gust of wind" comes, we, too, will fall. 

Nurturing our testimonies daily will truly help us to stand strong when those hard times come.

We will not fall.

We will be strong!

Lessons Learned from our Gum Drop Tree:

1. When buying a house, find out what plants are already there 

and learn what you need to do to maintain them.

2. Just because something looks strong on the outside

 does not mean that it is strong on the inside.

3. While Bradford pears are beautiful, they are a pain to take care of.

4. Caleb really loves using a chainsaw.

It's exhausting chopping down a tree.