FUN LOVIN

Well Hello friends!!
Honest moment here.
I thought I was going to go into a black hole this past week! I was not feeling well there for about three days. Not good at all. And I wondered if those were the last two weeks of pregnancy. Nauseous. Cold chills. Grossness. Tired. Couldn't get out of bed. Early Labor? Hormones? A small virus? I can't explain it. But it is pretty much gone. And for that, I don't care WHAT it was...I'm just happy it went away :)
And then I came out of the fog. And I can walk and breathe and eat again.
And I just want to skip around!

I saw a commercial for cymbalta during that day on the couch...
and it said, "are you tired? no appetite? don't want to get up off the couch? {insert more symptoms here..}...maybe you have depression"  and I seriously called my midwife and told her maybe that was my problem.  She just laughed in my face and told me that we would worry about that if it really becomes a problem, but right now I am 38+ weeks pregnant and just sick or possibly in the beginning of labor.. which is just a normal process.  Oh goodness.  The things that go through this pregnant brain...

Not that depression is bad. In fact, I am going to be on the lookout.  Having a baby within days of the one year anniversary of losing my first son sets me up for an emotional party (not necessarily a happy party) that might be a lot of crazy mixed emotions.  So...I'm not ignorant to that possibility after birth...


This picture made me smile this morning. It came from my shower. With my sweet friend Jess, who is moving (DANG IT!) at the end of the year.  My poor moustache can't decide what side of my face it belongs on...

This was a free download from Sprik Space.

YOU need to go check out Sprik Space. She has some super cool freebies...all the time. Definitely worth looking in her archives too. I found some super cute things to print.
Kinkos and their crappy copiers were not my friends, so I had to send them off to be printed WELL. How is that for $1-$3 wall art? Well done, I think :)


Plus, this print belongs in my house. Sometimes I forget to speak love. I speak truth in the truest form, if you know what I mean.  Sometimes our job is to simply SPEAK LOVE...whether we feel it or not.  God calls us to LOVE. Being married allows us TO LOVE.  If we constantly just speak frustration...what kind of home are you creating?  Well...it's a good reminder for me, at least...


I am praying for continued energy and good health as I prepare to deliver this sweet boy. Brandon and I are so excited to meet him. We are scared of his crazy crying {how do I stop this crying?!} ...but knowing that God will allow us to handle every little bit of it :) We are so excited to welcome a new addition. And getting more and more excited to receive our referral...although I will be honest and say we are getting a little anxious...looks like it will be NOVEMBER...because of when our packet arrived in Ethiopia...they count the six months from that point, rather than when you turn it in (tricky...) But, the good news is...the boys will probably be CLOSER in age now. Because if you figure we get a six month old referral in SEPTEMBER...they would be six months apart, but if we get one in November...they will be FOUR months apart...so I feel like God knows every part of this journey. I trust that.


Today, I think I am going to attempt to go POST tailgate an Auburn football game. {meaning go after the game is over and hang out for a while outside the stadium...}  it is getting much cooler here...and I figure if I only go for a couple hours...I should be okay... :) Plus, my mom had me after sitting out at a hot football game all day...so here goes my best try.. ;)


Love to you this SATURDAY!!! :)

Celebrating with FRIENDS!!

I love the feeling of EXCITEMENT.
Especially when it is UNSELFISH.
Especially when it comes deep from within the heart...
I have some MAJOR EXCITEMENT for my friends Lesli and Ryan. They are an incredible couple who we have known since college.
When I first met Ryan, his freshman year, he was dating Lesli. He was completely out of control and inappropriate. Much like my boyfriend at the time...Brandon :)  We met at a Campus Crusade for Christ fall retreat.
Since then, we have stayed friends, but grown closer throughout the last year or so as we have begun our road to adoption, and watched their journey from afar.  Lesli has been an incredible woman to watch as she walks through this journey transparently, with a beautiful grace.   She and Ryan fostered for about a year as they were in the process of adopting.  They fostered an infant and a 16 year old boy.  I can't say much more than that about it....but I know that they made a life long eternal impact on the life of those boys.  When we saw a picture of their family and saw this boy who was almost taller than Ryan....we were SHOCKED to say the least, but we know that they provided an incredible example of LOVE and RESPECT to those children.

Anyway, they went to Ethiopia in December (right before Christmas) to meet their sweet boy, Greer.   They had an incredible time getting to know him, loving on him, and beginning to create a life long bond with him!  They have been longing to return to pick him up, but they have been at the mercy of their Embassy appointment.  The wait for their return has been abnormally long.  We have been in a waiting game together, us for our homestudy and them for their BABY!!  Obviously, I knew that their wait was much HARDER than ours.  Luckily, this week, they got word that they have an appointment!!  Although he was officially their son at the last court appearance, they will finally be bringing their son home VERY soon!! We couldn't be happier to join in this journey with them!! I am absoutely thrilled for them!!

On top of that, Lesli is due with their first biological child in May!!!!  It will be a little girl, so they will have one girl and one boy!  I am so excited to watch their journey unfold!!

This weekend, I was in Kentucky for a very sad, tragic funeral.  A great family friend of ours passed away and it was a huge loss to anyone who knew him or his family.  I was honored to be back in Kentucky to celebrate his life...but it was a very somber time to say goodbye to one of my dad's closest friends.   If I didn't get to see you (everyone except my parents and in laws..), I am so sorry! I had to devote time to my family and the family who lost their dad (husband, brother, etc.). 

When I dropped my rental car off in Louisville to catch my flight back to Georgia, I was able to meet up with Lesli and Ryan as they got out of church!! It was a perfect little meeting...just enough time to laugh and talk...and take a couple pictures outside of Starbucks !! It is hard to believe that in just a couple months I can go back and take pictures of them with their TWO BABIES!!

We were laughing really hard in this picture because of the random people that kept coming by and seeing us taking pictures outside of Starbucks! :)

Celebrating Rebecca!!

My best friend in Columbus. The one who I cried with in my classroom about her fourth miscarriage. The one who I ran to when I found out about Briar. I threw her baby shower for her baby and take pictures of her every month :) She threw my LOVE SHOWER and shew as the one who made ALL THOSE POOFS for Briar's CELEBRATION. (In fact, now that I made poofs for her birthday, I realized how much work they are...and I had to apologize to her for my GRIEF INDUCED DEMAND that she make 25 more....to hang over the celebration....I had a vision, but no means of getting there, and she made it happen. So awesome...)  I have walked through her marriage woes...she has walked through my saddest moments in life.  She continues to encourage me with GODLY wisdom, and I do the same for her.  We share recipes and make dinner for each other.  We bake together at Christmas and give joint gifts.  My husband ADORES her so much that sometimes we wonder if people might think that she is our SISTER WIFE.  We also love her child so much that we might steal her.  If she disappears from her crib, you know where to look, Becs!

The one who I talk to every single day. She DOES LIFE with me. She is one of those irreplaceable, unique, incredible people that words cannot describe adequately! I was so excited when I found out that we got to celebrate her 30th birthday together! She is TRULy someone worth celebrating!! She is an incredible person, inside and out and I am proud to call her my friend!

And she is even craftier than I am, by far.

Unfortunately, I waited until all the natural light was gone to take pictures.

So you can't tell how hard I worked on these decorations. But boy, were they cute!

In the many years we have been friends, I can only count on one hand the amount of pictures that we have TOGETHER!  So this is SPECIAL!  Oh, and you know that I love her because I got the sewing machine out for her....

Buoy is fooling everyone here, acting like he is so innocent!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAR FRIEND!! :) 

My Amazing Friends..

I have already bragged quite a bit about my sweet friends and church family here in Georgia.  They have been so amazing to walk alongside us during this entire journey.  I know I told you that I did not tell many friends about the celebration. Especially friends far away. But my friends from college found out about it. Brandon's roommates found out. And they rallied. And they came. The pastor who did our wedding, who we love so much, came with his sweet family....from close to ORLANDO FLORIDA.  It really made the time so special. We didn't ask them to come. But they figured out when it was and they showed up.

It was a great distraction too. Thursday night, when we came back from spreading some ashes (potentially sad), they were there, sitting on a swing and looking out at the water. And we sat. And talked. Until late.  Friday morning, after everything was over, and it might have been sad...they were there. We went to Panera. They came back to the house. It was so fun! And not to mention perfect to see them. These pictures don't include all of them. Brandon's three roommates and the sweet wife who came had to take off Thursday night because they had to WORK on FRIDAY...in Kentucky!!! Our friends Steph and Sarah also took off back to Western and Northern Kentucky respectively...because one of them had to work as well. These were the sweet friends who were able to stay until Friday.  We felt so LOVED that they were able to come.  We knew it was a huge sacrifice to drive so far for such a short time.  But it was really sweet.

I had to include the picture of my parents. This was about 6 days post baby. About 3 days post hospital. It was my first big dinner out. I tried to dress up. :) I love my parents. I was so glad they were here.  That's all for today :)
I almost hated to post today because I loved coming to the blog to see all the celebration pictures.  They are so HAPPY!

Donate to Briar's Brother Adoption Fund

This weekend..horses and fun..

Steeplechase was this weekend in Georgia. I didn't really know what that meant.
Being from Kentucky, I knew it involved horses.
I thought they would be running around a track.
They did....sort of.
I did not know we would be right next to them. That was amazing.
I did not know how many rednecks would be there. WOW.
i'm sad you couldn't see them. you would've loved it.
but then there were a couple big money honey-ies...do you see the lady in the hat? She was walking along the inside of the fence (where the horses are) stumbling...saying in a thick Georgia accent, "Just how do I get over this fence? Some(wonnn) is gon' to hav' to bringgg' me a chaairr." Oh high society south. the entitlement. Poor lady...it looks like a bird crashed on her head, no wonder she wanted to climb the fence.
so back to these races...The horses jumped over large hurdles. I sound ignorant, which I sort of am. My mom used to participate in the sport when she was young, so she will be embarrassed of my lack of knowledge. Seriously..the depth of my knowledge involves playing soccer on the 'horsepark' fields in kentucky! It was awesome! I loved watching it. We ended up with awesome front row (fence side) seats because some executive failed to show up for his good parking spot. Thank you, lazy executive.

we played some fun college-style games....corn hole and redneck golf. both seemed to keep the boys entertained while we ate and shopped. I scored a cute watch while we were there. The boys were a bit impatient with the chatting happening during cornhole. we were playing couples and the girls were taking the games a bit less than serious. Wouldn't you?




So, we didn't go see the Fitz this weekend, but I couldn't leave them out. This weekend was Adam and Ethan's birthday. They are old. Too old. 7. I think?! Oh gosh, I've been away too long. We got to see them a couple weeks ago and they are more fun than ever! I love running and playing with those guys! If Mel had a blog, you would read it every day. She is just the best. She's so much the best that she has no time for a blog. :) Then there is me, up way too late...just to blog :)

I am planning to send them a candygram this week as a belated gift...

Who has time to make it to the post office during real hours anyway?? Not me!
Wednesday off for Veteran's day...one bonus of working on a military post!

Have a great week!!