Rocco's Third Birthday Party | Construction Theme

Oh, my sweet boy, Rocco Koi. How is time going by so fast? It seems as though we just celebrated your first birthday and here we are, you’re THREE!

Three is my fave age!! Nothing like a squishy baby that is somewhat independent, but able to communicate their wants and needs and still wants their mommy and daddy! Rocco is such a sweet heart! Every night when I put him to bed he asks me to sing him the sunshine song. You Are My Sunshine has been our song since he was born but, I recently started singing him the song The Blessing (link here, you have to listen to it!!). My friend Katelyn shared this song with me and I’ve been singing it every since! At first he wasn’t for it at all, as we had established our nightly routine and adding a new song was a big no for him. After a few weeks of signing it (plus the “Sunshine Song”), he is coming around to it.

I want my babies to be prayed over every single night! I want them to know just how much Jesus loves them. I want them to experience His peace! I want their family’s to be prayed over before they even exist. The song, “The Blessing” is all of that! ** insert super, ugly cry ** Getting to sing that to Rocco, Olivia and RyAnne every night, brings me to tears because I’m just so grateful to be able to do that for them!

Celebrating this sweet guy’s third year of life was so easy - we love you to the moon and back baby boy! Happy third birthday!!

To all of our friends and family that joined us - thank you for being a light in his life. We love you guys so much and we’re thankful to raise him with you in his life!

P.S. Shout out to my sister-in-law, Chastin Padgett for the perfect cookies and cake! Rocco’s only request for his party were cookies and gonuts (doughnuts)! Check out her page Sweet Treats Cupcakery.

A Night of Worship and Prayer | Piedmont Newton

Smacking myself in the head right now!!! P-H-I-L-I-P-P-I-A-N-S!!! Two P’s, not one!! I drove all over town with a misspelled word on my car! Nooooooo! Can’t even handle it y’all!!

Today, as I prepared to attend this event, my emotions got the best of me! I had to phone my friend Cassie! For one, y’all, I got to put something on my schedule!! That was insanely exciting! Secondly, I knew I was going to see lots of my friends (6 feet a part!) AND get to worship and pray with them over the hospital staff and patients!!

This past Sunday during our online service, pastor Russ, spoke about how when Paul was in prison he was STILL praising his Savior! He was in the worst place ever and had a death sentence on his head. Yet, Paul CHOSE not to be anxious but pray, sharing how thankful he was to the Lord. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:4,

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.”

Is that speaking to you right now in this moment of time? We have a choice! We can choose to be miserable where we are OR we can choose to praise God even in this storm, finding whatever is lovely and PRAISE Him and THANK Him for it!

This is hard! Yes, it is. But, Paul did it and he was in a much worse place than we are. We can do this y’all!

CONFESSION TIME: Even tonight I found myself grumbling about the number of people that showed up to pray over the hospital. My focus was on the negative. Thankfully a friend of mine shared something so exciting. She texted me to let me know, during our prayer and worship night, her and her husband prayed TOGETHER. That was something very exciting for them to experience together! I know her heart was filled with so much joy! Also, I got to see so many of my friends, one of which was having a really bad day. With tears in our eyes she was able to share some of her burdens, giving us the opportunity to carry some of the weight for her! If we wouldn’t have met tonight, NONE of this would have happened!! And, we don’t even know what was happening inside that hospital! I have no doubt God was doing something even more magnificent.

I’m so thankful my gracious Father intervened and redirected my thoughts. I then asked for His forgiveness, CHOSE to see the joy and praise HIM for it - all of it!! He is so good and He is moving even when we don’t see His good works right away.

Let’s choose joy!

TRUST! | Lessons from a virus

Earlier this year, I chose a word. It was something that I wanted to work on for the rest of this year. I chose the word, TRUST. Wouldn’t you know that my bible study group started a bible study called Trustworthy by Lysa Terkeurst! We’re several weeks into this study and now here we all are, quarantined to our homes and homeschooling our children in hopes that we can flatten the curve of this virus from spreading. It’s been a strange year so far, huh?!?!

I’ve started my year off with four illnesses but with every sickness, God brings me back to Him. He reminds me that I need to TRUST in Him.

TRUST the controlled, faith producing, suffering.

-Holly L. Robbins

I know my GOD is at work!! I know so many miracles are happening and so many lives are being transformed in this time of stillness in the world. This morning I prayed that God would have HIS way with HIS people and continue to bring them to their knees as they call Him Father!

Even though, being away from our community, friends and family isn’t easy, we can hold strong in our faith through this darkness because we believe and have His light in us.

There are so many people suffering alone at this time. . .isolation is creating a gateway for the enemy to creep in and we are spiraling into dark thoughts and anxiety is weighing on our chests. There is so much hope in God’s Word. At this time I’m choosing to focus on what HE says instead of some of the anxious thoughts I create.

Nothing tests our trust like fear. But fear fades when we trust the strength and sovereignty of our GOD.

- Lysa Terkeurst, Trustworth

So, ask yourself, what are my fears? Write them down - IDENTIFY them. Let them escape your brain onto paper. Now that you know what is causing the anxiety, you can begin to work on it. You can now pair your fear with TRUTH!

THE FEAR: My fear is that we will not be able to pay our bills if we can’t work due to the shelter-in-place.

THE TRUTH: We are all in this same situation and God is in control of it. He will bless us with what we need and when we need it if I continue to put my faith in Him.

God put this on my heart to share with you! If you find it helpful please be sure to share it with someone! I love you guys!

RyAnne, Olivia and Rocco | Spring 2020

Today, Trey and I walked our babies across the street and photographed them in all of spring’s glory! It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve photographed my babies! Life has been all over the place with selling our home, two moves in the past three months and now this strange time in our history from this virus. Oh, and HOMESCHOOL! Whoa! Now, that was a curveball for us all, right?!? I honestly never in my life thought I would be homeschooling my babies. But here we are, we’re doing it and surviving!

We’ve lived in our rental home for about two months now and we’ve been making plans for our new home ever since! We have plans drawn up, fixtures picked out and we should be getting started at the end of April. It’s way longer than we anticipated but it will be so much fun! And, I have a little surprise!! Nope, I’m not pregnant either!! Just another curveball that took me a bit to take it all in! Can’t wait to share!

RyAnne will turn 10 in about a month, Olivia is now 6 years old (she’s waited two years to be SIX!), Rocco is 2.5. I’m pretty sure RyAnne will be celebrating at home, with no friends, due to this virus. Which makes me so sad for her. We have always gone all out for their birthday parties and made them as special as possible with friends and family. This year might be different but we will still make it as special as possible!

I hope you guys are doing well, social distancing and having fun being at home!!

FOR the Circle - United WKND 2020

Today at church, with tears streaming down my face and my soul shouting to the Lord, “THANK YOU!”, I photographed answered prayers! I’ve never seen this many prayers answered all at once! I watched as leaders baptized children over and over and OVER again!  

We, as a community, have been praying for lives to be changed, for God’s light to shine bright and y’all, the darkness had no choice but to flee!!!! 

The power of prayer is very real and it’s needed. Every. Single. DAY!! 

Please pray for your community. Pray without ceasing!! Cover the teachers that take care of your children, the leaders of your city, the ones that take care of the mundane responsibilities. Pray that every single person in your community will encounter Jesus today and every day! Pray for a movement that will change our history for God’s glory! Cover your babies in prayers so that they will be a light to others!

I’m praying for the children that have Jesus in their hearts as they face life here on earth as a Christian and praying for the ones that are on the fence about accepting Jesus into their life! The enemy is real and he will do everything he can to keep these babies from meeting with Jesus every day. We have the power to bring the light and force the enemy out!

Dear Lord, thank you so much for the children that have chosen to give their life to You and serve You! Guard each of their hearts Father. Put people in their life that will help nourish their relationship with You! Burden their hearts with a desire for quiet time with You so they will enrich their relationship with You through Your Word. 

Be with each attendee of UNITED WKND as they go to school tomorrow and give them opportunities to share what they did this weekend! Allow other’s interests to be peaked because of this. Move this community closer to You and allow us to share Your love as You have commanded of us Lord. 

We are fighting a battle. You say we are the light of the world. We are built for this battle and as the light of the world we will wake up to the truth of who You say we are and FIGHT! Because of You Lord the darkness will be pushed back!

What can we do Lord, how can we serve You and the needs of our community? What do You need us to do from here to continue this movement Jesus? 

I love You Lord, AMEN!