Friday, May 20, 2011

Mia!

It's taking forever to upload these, so I'll have to post about Mia in a few separate posts.

My little sweet niece was born on May 6th at 6:22 am.  It was a loooong night for poor Lauren.

Mom was cracking us up because she was telling Lauren how strong her contractions were.  You catch that?  Mom was telling Lauren, how strong her contractions were.

It was pretty hilarious.  Most people don't realize that you can't tell the strength of contractions just by what the screen says.  You actually have to feel them with your hand, or have an internal pressure catheter.  So poor Lauren is laughing and hurting at the same time here.

Yep, torturing her.

Waiting for our sweet baby:)

Here's all of us!  And yes, we all stayed:)  It was me, mom, Ab, Chris, Megan, Meemaw, and Mimi

Poor Abbie had to work the next morning so she slept in the window sill for a little bit

And then, Mia decided to make her grand entrance!

Perfect. In every way

Momma's first glance

Love this one
 
Awwwhhh, my namesake:)

Can I take her home?

The time we thought would never come

Auntie Abbie

These pictures were taken by Megan:) I was too busy being a nurse and sister:)

Thursday, May 19, 2011

New Wheels


This was my Mother's Day present!  I love it!  It will be perfect for the new house:)

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Life Christian School! God's Story Part Two

I thought I already told the story about our new little school right outside of Wilmington, but I just looked back through and I don't see it. And it's part of our God story!

So, when Jeremy and I went to Wilmington back in February to look around, we started researching schools.  He found one but the website wasn't available anymore.  But that didn't deter Jeremy:), he found Dr. Gray on facebook and contacted her.  At that point she was mostly helping people homeschool but she said we should meet with her.

When we went down for Spring Break, we got a chance to meet her.  And at this point she decided to reopen her school for next year.  Get this, for grades K-2!  She wanted God to lead the students so she just let him bring the ages he wanted.  Lo and behold, it's just the grades we needed!

Dr. Gray is a chiropractor and she had homeschool her three children.  Her office is set up as the school and she does adjustments in the afternoons after school. She is a Godly woman and she goes to a church that we've heard a lot about and are planning on visiting.  She showed us around and then we sat down in one of the classrooms and just talked.  She gave us her philosophy and what she hoped to instill in the kids.  We.loved.her.  She plans to do charlotte mason and classical and sonlight, all mixed and balanced:)  Gracie and Piper will be in the same classroom!  We are so excited about that.  There are only three families currently enrolled for next year, and we are fine with that.

After we talked she told us she wanted to take us to the north campus.  I had no idea what that meant:)  We get there and it's on her parent's land.  Her dad built her a little schoolhouse!  And there's a playground.  She said this is where they would eat lunch and spend the afternoons.  Oh my goodness, it's a nature wonderland!  There are nature trails, a pond, chickens, a greenhouse, a garden, a goldfish pond, and probably more I am forgetting.  Dr. Gray says kids need to be outside and learning!  We couldn't agree more.  The girls will LOVE this.  I can't wait for the to see it.

When we came home and told the girls about the school, they wanted to go see it and meet Dr. Gray.  They were shy, of course.  Gracie decided to call it fake school.  Why? Because she says it's so small:)  But it will be right up her alley.

More of God's Story.....

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

God's Story

I've held off on posting about our move because I haven't had pictures!  Sweet Jeremy tried to get some for me but they're really blurry.  I am going next week, so I'll get more.  But I wanted to go ahead and write our story down, and I'll post the pix later!

God is writing a story into our lives that we never imagined.  And we certainly wouldn't have asked for.  Moving away is hands down the hardest thing he's ever asked of me.  The roots here are DEEP.  And to be completely honest, even now, I can barely think about it.  I feel like my heart is being ripped out.

But God is weaving a story and He is confirming this is what we are to do, every step of the way.  First of all, there are the things you already know about, the awesome job, and the sweet little cottage school.  But there's so much more.

When Jeremy and I went to motorcycle school:), there was only one other couple in the class (There were lots of people, but not couples).  One day while we were riding, the lady came up to me and asked me if Jeremy and I were in ministry.  I told her no, but that we were really involved in our church.  She then says, "There's something different about you guys.  I can see it.  God is going to use you.  He's going to use you to minister to others, especially in evangelism."  Then we had to part ways and get back on our bikes.  But I just stood there for a minute completely humbled.  Whaaaattt?  God, I can't believe you just did that for me!  You just confirmed once again that you have a plan for us, through a perfect stranger who doesn't even know we are moving.  whoa.

Then there is our house.  I fell in love with a house this past spring when we went down to look.  We signed the papers and put down the deposit on it. Then through a series of crazy ridiculous events, including them telling us we couldn't hang a single thing on the walls (seriously), that door was closed.  I was seriously heartbroken.  I loved the house.  Dear Tracie went with me to look at more houses.  She was patient and kind with me, but I was really really sad.  So we started looking and a house came up for rent in a neighborhood that we had looked at buying a lot in.  It has awesome amenities and the houses are beautiful.  We totally couldn't afford the house and Jeremy had already looked at it. But the manager of the property told us to ask the lady to lower the rent, so I agreed to go look at it.  Loved it!  It's beautiful!  And hear me, it's BRAND NEW!  Just finished two weeks ago!  Jeremy called the lady and talked to her about the house.  She told him, "Don't ever build!  It's sooo hard!"  And she went on about it.  Jeremy started laughing and told her he was a builder.  She liked that, and she and Jeremy hit it off:)  He told her we would love to rent the house but that we couldn't afford the price.  So she cut it by $400 a month!!!!! Which means we are paying $400 less than her mortgage on the house! Whaaatttt?  Ok Lord!  The lady and her husband have been great to us and as you can imagine, Jeremy has already been serving them and getting their house finished for them.  He moved in two weeks ago.  Wait till you see it, it's so cute:)
  There is one major concern I have....it's 25 mins to the girl's school.  But we decided to sacrifice that in order to have the family life we were hoping for.  You see, this neighborhood was started right when the economy crashed.  Builders bought up the lots and then lost them.  There should be a 1,000 houses in the neighborhood, but there's only five.  Five.  And we have a 10 million dollar pool and clubhouse with a workout room!  It's a gated community and there's tons of land to roam.  See, whoa Lord:)
  Oh and there's one other concern...the alligators.  Yep, apparently they are all over the place down there.  I have to admit I've lost a little sleep over this.  There's lakes all over the property.  It's beautiful.  There's a  pond right in our back yard.  So I asked for a fence.  The owners graciously agreed!  Once again, the Lord's provision.
  We are also on the inter coastal waterway and about 10 mins from the beach:)
  Oh and one last thing about the house.  The company will pay our rent until we sell our house.  They give us a certain amount a month and it was a few hundred shy of our actual rent.  Jeremy submitted the paper work last week for it and his boss came by to show him that he changed the paperwork.  He upped our compensation to cover the whole rent!!  Amazing.  We didn't ask, he just did it.

  So God is writing this story.  I am in faith for what He has in store.
  We will be moving June 14th.  Pray for us if you think about it.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Go Pipey Goooooo!

Pipey is learning to ride her bike without training wheels.  This is part of Daddy's job description, so she doesn't get to practice much right now.  But she's doing great:))






GO girl!

Strawberry Pickin'

On Monday we went Strawberry Picking!  It was the absolute perfect day for it!  Usually we sweat to death.  This year, there was an awesome breeze and beautiful sun.  Ahhhh!


Immediately, Reese started picking and eating

Little Madison's first time.  I remember this time last year, hoping and praying she was coming home soon!

mmmmmmm.  Reese really,

really,

really enjoyed it

The whole gang,

Except Reese.  She was busy eating over on another row

Yes, she was over there, see

Pipey likes pickin!

See mama!  She likes to show me her progress too

She was so sweet to help Madison





Sweet Success!  And so was the strawberry pie we had with dinner:)