Tonight.

Just about anything I have to say tonight feels somewhat petty in light of what's happening in Oklahoma right now. Our prayers go out to them - especially the parents who are not tucking in their little ones tonight. I can't even imagine.

So with no more words, here are some photos from our trip to Florida. Our (found!) camera arrived in the mail this morning, and I am so thankful to have these sweet reminders of how blessed we are with family.

Kingdoms.

These pictures have nothing to do with the post. I just couldn't help but show you my happy little chub that makes my heart sing.

Shawn and I have been talking a lot recently about kingdoms. As he put it the other night, "We're either building God's Kingdom, or we're building our own." That hit me because it's so true. I'm either investing my time and energy into loving and serving others (and in turn, loving and serving the Lord) and building His Kingdom here on earth. Or I'm building my own kingdom: striving to find the nicest house and cars and jobs, trying to maintain the easiest, most comfortable life, and building myself up. I'm either humbling myself to put others first or toppling over them to get ahead. I'm either making Him great or making myself great. It's a constant struggle. 

Jesus was clear: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." (Matthew 16:24)

That makes me squirm. I love comfort. I love certainty. I love safety. But that's not what He called us to. He calls us to faith, to action, to radical love and sacrifice. 

So as we pack up our home and look out at this blank slate before us with so many decision to make, we pray for the grace to make building His Kingdom our aim.

New friends.

It's not every day I can say "I taught military spouses to make earrings." Ha. But one morning last week at my parents' house, I had the privilege of doing just that.



It's kind of a long story as to how it happened - and how we didn't realize until the day before that it wasn't just military wives that would be attending, but military husbands. Impressively, the husbands did a fabulous job designing and making the earrings for their wives, and they had the best attitude about it. The mood was light and we followed the craft time with a delicious lunch and some time to get to know one another.





I guess what I came away with the most was more awareness and appreciation for what they do. Because honestly, I don't even think about it every day. The next time I hear news about our troops serving overseas, I'll see these faces in my mind. I'll hear their stories. I'll remember how many times they've moved, how many days it's been since they've seen their loved ones, and just how much they sacrifice every single day on our country's behalf. On my behalf. For freedom. And I might also remember the big burly man with his hands curled around jewelry pliers. :)

Sweet Grammaw.

We spent the last four days in sunny Florida, where we traveled to introduce our little guy to Shawn's extended family. We flew into Orlando and drove to both coasts to see different members of his family and had the sweetest visits with them.

Liam is nearly 7 months old and is pretty clingy to mom and dad these days. He'll smile at a thousand strangers if he's being held by one of us, but the moment he's passed to someone he doesn't know so well, his bottom lip comes out, he starts to cry, and he reaches for us again.

In light of that, we prayed for a miracle. Shawn's precious Grammaw is 88 years old and she's completely lost her vision. We don't know how many more visits we have with her, and this one - meeting her first great grandchild - was so important. So we'd prayed specifically that because Grammaw couldn't see Liam's sweet smile or big blue eyes from across the room, that Liam would allow her to hold him so she could smell his head and cuddle him. We knew it would mean the world.

God answered. I can't help but show you how unbelievable he was with her. He sat calmly in her arms, playing with her hands, looking up at her face, for at least half an hour - an incredible amount of time to sit still with anyone, let alone a woman he'd never met. Thank you, Jesus.

PS - We're so grateful for these photos and for the video taken with our phone, but we somehow left our real camera (with tons of pictures of Liam with Grammaw and other family members and our time at the beach) at the hotel. We've called and they haven't found it, but we're praying it turns up somewhere. I kind of can't think about what we've lost if it's gone.

UPDATE: The camera is found!!! It was turned in to the rental car company in Orlando and is being shipped back to us today. We could not be more thrilled!!!

Yard sale!

I'm thinking about this quote as I pack up our things this morning. Some things are going into boxes for moving or storage. A lot is being priced to sell. It's kind of amazing how much stuff you accumulate when you live somewhere for three and a half years (or lots more! I can't imagine.). I'm on the edge of my seat to know what we're going to do and where we're going to go next. It's all still very up in the air, but I'm so thankful the Lord knows. He's got this. I just have to remember that - and take a deep breath.

While I don't think C. S. Lewis had moving in mind when he wrote this, his words are helping me keep a heavenly perspective. Our time on earth is so fleeting. So hard. There truly are far, far better things that await - and it's so easy to lose that perspective when the unknowns of now feel pretty overwhelming.

With that said, if you're in the Nashville area on May 17-18, come to our yard sale! We are selling quite a bit and would love to see it all go. We'll be having it at our house in Franklin from 3pm to 6pm on Friday afternoon and then from 7am to 2pm on Saturday. There will be furniture, clothes, fabric and craft items, books, kitchen items, home decor, and baby items and clothes. There will even some really discounted Brighter Day sample bags! Send me an email if you'd like to come and I'll send you the details.