Happy Birthday

Here it is-Samuel's 3rd Birthday. It still hurts, but we will celebrate nonetheless.




Not sure which wires were mine and which were his in this picture!

This is my favorite pic. Darrell is so proud of his second son and I am told he was practically running with the pediatric team down the hallway to get to Childrens. I love his smile (this is when we still thought Samuel would live).

Town Hall for Hope

Great news!

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27


Check out this message of hope from Dave Ramsey

http://www.townhallforhope.com/

Stage Name: Dean Creek

I am sure you have all heard to get your stage name (your middle name and street name) so Jackson's is Dean Creek. Well he has quite a stage presence.

For our St. Patrick's Day Party at work, Jackson, I mean, Dean Creek stole the show. He hopped right up on our stage took the microphone and clearly pronounced the winners to our contest. My favorite name that he had to say: Andromedia.

I am confident in saying that when I was 5 I hid behind my mom's skirt and prayed that no one would notice that I was around, but Jackson is just too charming to hide and what a cute Irishman he was.

This little girl, however, was having no part of entertaining. Linley has been home sick all week. Before you give us pity let me assure you that Linley sick is actually kind of sweet. She has snuggled with me more this week than she has her entire first 18 months of life. Luckily Gee is here taking care of her today.

Doesn't that face just say it all? It says I am in charge and watch out world cause if I don't get my way a giant tantrum is coming. I will get a video of one of those tantrums soon. It will be good footage for her Rehearsal Dinner Slideshow in about 22 years:)

All the Single Men

So have I ever mentioned how much I love my friends. They pretty much rock and I love that I have different friends in different life stages that all bring somehing different to the table as wonderful women of God.

The past couple of weeks, Darrell and I have been able to hang out with some of them and this summer we will be going to Mexico with several other couples. Darrell, stop reading here. (if any of you want to pray for a little mexico baby please feel free).

Continuing on:

While I love my friends, I wouldn't dare post anything that boring on here so I thought I would take this opportunity in honor of St. Pottsy's day to post on this one friend: pictured below.

Love her and guess what-she's single. Now don't be worried that she will be mad at me for this post, because well, she doesn't read her hotmail account or facebook and especially not blogs. (maybe she will after this). I have been friends with Potts for many years now and it is time for her to find a catch as good as she is. So all 10 of you that read this blog it is time to keep your eyes open. I will issue dating cards for her that you can hand out and let's get this ball rolling:) I mean who wouldn't date a woman this amazing who can sport a sombrero any old day of the year?

That takes confidence folks. Don't worry about the other blondes in the pictures-they are already spoken for.

When Daddies Are In Charge of Bathtime

Before bathtime I will wish Happy Birthday's to both Grandmother's. We celebrated with Gee on Saturday with a carrot cake-yum (Jackson decided to bring out the carousel horses for a topper). The day before we celebrated Jackson said "Mommy, I think we need to make Gee and Grams ballerina cakes." Umm-not gonna happen. I love how everyone is focused on blowing out candles, except Darrell:) Oh and we waited for Linley to go to sleep before we dug into the cheesecake.

So while I was getting Grams' cake ready I asked Darrell to give the kids a bath. This is usually a pretty painless job until Linley recently decided she didn't like bathtime. They all disappear and about ten minutes later we (Grams, MacDaddy and myself) hear a "Come look at this."

We all pile into the bathroom, I must admit I was kind of expecting some extra "goodies" to be in the tub courtesy of Linley, but was relieved and quite tickled to find this:

That's a lot of bubbles. Actually, I think there were equal parts of bubbles and water in that tub, but either way there were too many bubbles for Linley to sit down. Good job Sweetie!

Loving the Seniors

So I love seniors. This is obvious since I have spent my last 8 years working for them.
I have tried to teach my kids to love them as well. Any one who has lived 80+ years has lots of experience and wisdom and just downright funny stories. This love of seniors has translated great for one of my brood and the other is, well, a work in progress. I am sure you can tell which is which.
Linley finally conceded to be held by another human being other than her mother, but only after she was bribed with cookies.

March is Coming

So I have been debating on this post for a while now, but I believe that God has made it very clear to me that now is the time and I will not apologize for any of it.

So it has been nearly three years since our sweet Samuel (I don't know why I must always say sweet before his name, but I must) was born. For those of you that were on that journey with us-Can you believe that it has been THREE YEARS? I surely cannot. There has not been a single day (honestly) that I have not thought of him in some form.
I think the thing I struggle with most is the question from others: "How many kids do you have?" My answer changes every single time probably depending on my mood and how the Spirit is working in me, but I digress.

Since I have been a believer I have had three AHA moments related to my relationship with Christ. Most of my time spent learning about God and his love for me has been a slow disciplining of me to be a woman of God (I realize I fail daily at this, but it is still an ongoing process and always will be), however, those three Aha moments are noteworthy.

1. The first was the day I was sitting in that youth rally in Birmingham(the place of my physical birth and then the place of my spiritual birth) and finally got the fact that Grace was FREE, yet it cost everything! Can I get an AMEN for that? It was truly life changing as I walked up to the front with a dear friend to commit my life to following Christ.

2. My next true realization and understanding (those words are not strong enough) of God's love for me and I do mean unconditional, I would die for you love, was after the birth of our first son, Jackson. I have loved many people in my life and I dearly love my husband, but it was not until someone was made from both Darrell and I that I truly understood that love (oh and friends I am SURE my love is only a tiny fraction of God's great love.)

So I thought my truths were done until a recent dream and my 3rd realization nearly 3 years after Samuel's death. (this is the point where if you have known me for very long you are wondering why I am talking about a dream, because I hate hearing about dreams) In my dream I was giving a Young life talk about Jesus on the Cross-you know the talk everyone dreads b/c it is so sad and full of despair-that is until you get to the resurrection. Anyway in my dream talk I finally had another Aha moment.

As Darrell and I held Samuel March 29th and sent everyone out of the room we unplugged him from everything that was giving him life. We sang to him and kissed him and let our tears fall on him. After a few minutes (really I have no idea how much time had passed) we signaled the nurses in and told them we thought he had passed. The sweetest nurse, Amy, listened for a long time and looked at us and said-no he is still alive. Really? This is where in my dream I felt just a teeee tiny bit of God's pain. Really, God must have thought? My son, Jesus has not suffered enough-the crown of thorns, being whipped, being spat upon, clothes being ripped. That isn't painful enough, not enough to save them, save us-now He must hang from a cross and die.

Folks that is where my similarities end, b/c Samuel was not abused in those ways, but Friends it was tough to go on and to watch him and hold him as he did pass on especially since we learned later that the only part of his brain that was working was the part that received pain.

My three moments: 1. Grace, 2. Love 3. Sacrifice of suffering
I am sure there will be more to come and I love that they came in such different ways.

If you journeyed with us to meet Samuel and journeyed with us as he was added to the Kingdom of Heaven-Thank You.