crew | one month

Another week has flown by. This week, Crew discovered how to smile. Up until now, he'd really only smiled when he was asleep and dreaming. We love just talking to him and watching him grin. He has the cutest smile and dimples! He's also found his voice and enjoys talking and cooing at us.

His eyebrows are so expressive!

Crew's first concert at 3 weeks, 1 day

Matching vests with Poppy

Will & I went out for our first date without Crew. It was hard leaving him! He stayed at my parents while we went to Texas Roadhouse and to see the movie Gravity (which we loved). We talked about Crew the entire time though and were anxious to get back to him!

Crew's first road trip was to Hardy, AR. This is where we always go camping every Fall and Spring. While we couldn't camp, it's a close enough drive to go for the day. Crew did so great in the car and slept the entire way there and back. We went antique shopping and Will did some fishing. It was my first time to wear my Moby wrap with Crew and we both loved it. It did feel like I was pregnant again carrying such a big baby (hello, back pain!), but it was much more convenient than pushing a stroller through cramped antique shops. It also kept us both pretty warm! Can't wait to wear him again!

Crew still loves being swaddled and held close. He likes sleeping on his daddy's chest, riding in the car, being outside and bath time. He doesn't like having his clothes changed or being strapped into his car seat!

Yesterday we celebrated several things. It was Crew's one month birthday. The past month has flown by. Our lives were changed for the better on October 3rd and we still look at Crew in complete awe that he is our son. I may be a little biased, but he is just the most handsome, sweet baby there is! It was also Crew's first day at church. I held him the entire time and he just snoozed in my arms. He did so good! There were several times I teared up during worship thinking about how just a few months ago I stood there pregnant and imagining holding our son in my arms. God has been so good in blessing our family with this precious baby.

Our church celebrated its 10 year anniversary yesterday as well as the grand opening of our new building and permanent church home. After meeting in homes, a school and a hotel the past 10 years, our church now has a home base for ministry within the city. This building has been prayed for and prayed over for years and it was amazing to see those prayers answered. The recurring theme for the morning at church was "God is faithful" and He is. Over and over again.

Crew is one month old. God is faithful.
We are free to raise our son loving God. God is faithful.
ICC celebrated 10 years serving downtown Memphis. God is faithful.
We were blessed with an amazing building to call our permanent church home.  God is faithful.

My matching boys. I love them so much it hurts.

We are so looking forward to many more months to come with our sweet boy!

travel: africa

I realize that the blog has been taken over by all things pregnancy over the past 8 months (& we actually have so many non-pregnancy related posts that are just waiting to be written). So...at long last, my amazing husband has finally made time to write a few blog posts for me! It's been a while!

_________________________________________________________________________________ 

Welp here's the deal. 20 years ago when I started kindergarten I took a vow to never ever participate in school activities over the summer. After a lifetime of school my vow remained unbroken, and even though I'm done with school (for now), I find it nearly impossible to do any type of scholarly work over the summer months. That being said, with the school months back in full swing, it is time to catch up on some blogging. There are several blogs in the cooker at the moment, but I think we'll start off with the basics.

This summer I had the privilege to go on two mission trips with our church, Island Community Church. (Speaking of churches, if you're looking for a church in Memphis that is all about taking the Gospel to the nations, ICC is the place to be!) We went across the globe to Africa and China, all within 3 weeks. The trips were such a great reminder that God is at work among the nations and we are given the incredible opportunity of being involved. My hope is that these posts inspire you to be involved missions globally, nationally, and even right next door.

AFRICA

We spent the majority of our week in Africa focusing on evangelism and dental clinics. We spent half of our week in Nairobi, Kenya, and the other half in Arusha, Tanzania. Serving with our missionary partner, we focused on multiplying the local house church network. It is truly amazing to see people that are meeting together to study God's word, not because it is cultural, but because they have a deep desire to know more about God. It is humbling to see pastors that give their life towards spiritual leadership of others and do so with no payroll or monetary incentive. They serve locally, where they know the people, where they have spent the majority of their lives, and are so extremely passionate about doing the work of the Lord. It is inspiring to see people who have little materially, but have so much spiritual joy.

Our time in Nairobi was incredible. We saw tons of people at the dental clinic (as many as one dentist can see), and were able to share with many many more. I'll never forget the church service Sunday morning. After a great time of worship, the pastor called for the members to come forward with their offering. I sat amazed watching people with barely any source of income as they came forward and placed money into the offering plate. Watching people with so little give with gladness in their hearts was an amazing reminder that following Jesus is not about gaining wealth, but gaining joy in Him. 

Our time in Tanzania was just as rewarding and as special as in Nairobi. Tanzania is a gorgeous country, with Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru as the highlights of the horizon. Tanzania was a bit more of an adventure, with no running water and no electricity, but the people there have a beautifully simple way of life. On our last full day in Tanzania, we had another great turn out for the dental clinic. As people waited, we were able to share with them the story of Jesus. While sharing with one woman, she became very reluctant to leave behind her religion to give her life to Christ. It was perhaps one of the greatest moments of the week as I sat with her and the translator and simply watched God give her peace in accepting Him. This woman came in search of help with her teeth and, along with many others, she received an even greater help and joy from accepting the Gospel into her life. There is no greater joy than sharing the Gospel with others and seeing firsthand how the Word of God has the power to change lives. 

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations..."

Ephesians 3:14-21

Weekend Recap - First Baby Shower

Another great weekend has flown by. We had our first baby shower this weekend. It was given by our couples group at church and we loved it. I'll do a separate post for it later this week, but here are a few iPhone photos for now!

On the way to the shower...

Remi and Ginger seem to think that any toy/stuffed animal we get for Crew should be theirs. Ginger spent a majority of the day Sunday staring through the bars on the crib and whining because she couldn't get to this stuffed lion.

At church yesterday morning, the THREE of us got to give the welcome greeting!

Yesterday afternoon my Dad came over to put the finishing touches on our closet renovation. I'll hopefully also have a before/after post on that too!

Will and Remi cuddling last night...

On the pregnancy front, I am officially uncomfortable. 

8 weeks to go.

Weekend Recap - He's Home!

I'm back from the beach and Will has made it safely home from Africa. Boy, did I miss him! That was 8 days of no communication that I'd rather not do again...but he's going to China in a few days so we might have to do that just one more time. I'll be posting on my family beach trip this week and he'll probably do a post or two of Kenya and Tanzania. He had such a great time and I've loved hearing all the stories! Thank you to everyone who prayed for him!

I got back home Friday and spent the day resting at my parents with our dogs and their dogs (because they didn't get back until Saturday). I think it's safe to say that Remi missed Baby K...or just his pillow!

Almost time to pick Will up from the airport! Remi was pretty excited.

He's back! AND he grew a beard while he was gone! I kept just staring at his face at the airport because I had never seen his beard this long. He didn't shave the week before he left and while in Africa. I missed my husband so much and it was hard leaving him this morning to go to work! Already dreading him being gone again for the China trip, but I know he'll have a great time!

On Sunday morning we had church down at the river (Mississippi) for baptism and brunch. It was SO HOT (which is why we didn't stay for brunch...I was dyin'!), but it is so neat to see people baptized in the river. We almost didn't go because of being tired from traveling, but I'm glad we made ourselves get out of bed!

The rest of Sunday was spent watching movies and sleeping! We came home and ate lunch then went back to bed. I knew Will was tired despite his denying it. He actually stayed awake until about 4:30 and then slept for 2.5 hours. (He was 8 hours ahead in Africa so I guess his body was thinking it was nighttime!) He woke up for dinner and we watched a few episodes of One Tree Hill then back to sleep again. He's going to have just enough time for his body to readjust to the time difference before going to China and being 13 hours ahead! Makes me tired just thinking about it!

will's ordination

Well, I finally have this post ready. Better late than never, right? I had some SD card issues, but it's fixed now!

Will got ordained last Sunday, June 23rd at Faith Baptist Church in Bartlett, TN. This is the church where we both grew up and where we met! It meant a lot to us to be able to have our "home" pastor and our current pastor be a part of Will's ordination. We also had most of our small group from ICC come to Faith that night. It was just such a special night!

Barrett (our current pastor) praying for us.

Our home pastor

We are so grateful to everyone who came to celebrate Will's ordination with us!

Weekend Recap - Gender Reveal

Wow. I don't even know where to start on this weekend! It was beyond great! I'm still on Cloud 9 after finding out Baby K's gender on Saturday!

WEDNESDAY:

I know this isn't exactly the weekend, but I had to throw it in because it was a fun date night! If you remember, my Christmas present from Will this past year was tickets to 3 shows at the Orpheum. (We went to the first one in February and I will have to say that this one was so much more enjoyable being in the second trimester! No nausea and I can stay up past 7:00pm!) We saw Memphis this time and loved it! Very appropriate being that we live in Memphis!

THURSDAY:

Our 16 week appointment - aka THE gender appointment! I was so excited about this...but also a little nervous that they wouldn't be able to tell what the gender was 100%. Luckily, they had no problem with it because Baby K was moving and kicking around like crazy! We had the sonographer put the gender in an envelope so we could take it to Kelly to prepare for the big surprise at Saturday's party. (And no, we didn't find out before everyone else. Kelly..and the sonographer...were the ONLY people who knew the gender!)

THE envelope. It sure was tempting to peek!..which is why it went STRAIGHT to Kelly's house after we left the appointment!

We had to celebrate with my first official pregnancy craving. Chick-fil-A ice cream.

My all-time fav ultrasound picture! Baby K says HI!!

 FRIDAY:

For some reason, I think that Will's book about my pregnancy is more interesting than my books about pregnancy!

We went on a double date with Nate and Roxanna to Range USA. They have a special where you can have dinner, get 2 boxes of ammo and use the range for $50. (Don't worry, I made sure it was safe to shoot while being preggo. No harm done to Baby!)

SATURDAY:

The big day! In an effort to not make this post any longer than it already is, I'm going to do a separate gender reveal party post tomorrow. There's so much I want to say!

BUT...if you haven't seen what we're having yet, check out the video!

SUNDAY:

We go to Island Community Church based off of Mud Island in Memphis. Yesterday we were able to have worship right on the river and it was awesome! The only thing that would have made it better was a little sunshine! After worship, we had a crawfish and BBQ picnic. So fun! If you live on the island or anywhere downtown, please come visit us!

What a view, right?!

Amanda even brought Bentley to worship with us! He was such a good boy!

 What a weekend! I can't wait to share details of our party with you tomorrow!