ALIVE!!!!!!

The newness feeling of Makia being home has not worn off. With every passing day that occurs, I realize more and more how blessed I am to be reunited with my husband. You can not even imagine what a treat it is for me to wake up in the morning and find him sleeping next to me. Doing life beside him during the day is wonderful, and at night I am more than grateful to share my bed with him. I have come to realize how precious time is, and I now value the moments I get to share with my loved ones more then I ever have. We recently got to spend some time with family in Texas and Ohio. I found myself taking moments to look around to take in all the beauty of the lives that were around me, the laughter that came from them, and all the feelings that arose from their relationships. I feel like I am looking at life through a whole new set of eyes that are bringing such vibrant colors to this world that I had yet to see until now. In James 4:14 God talks about our lives being nothing but a vapor. I had never really understood the reality of this scripture up until now. It's crazy to think about how fast life can pass you by, and how we can all too easily spend it on things of this world that are unimportant. The time apart from Makia taught me many lessons, but among them I would say one of the most important would be the value of time and the importance of how we choose to spend it. My hope is that with the passing days I won't lose sight of this realization, and that I will choose to spend my life in a way that will bring glory to Christ.

I had a moment to sneak away to Mandi's house for a few minutes to hear her play the piano (which is one of my favorite things to do) the other evening. In case you haven't figured it out by now, Mandi is a woman of many talents. One of the beautiful songs she chose to play was Awesome God, and she couldn't have picked a more appropriate song. After having a particularly hectic day with dealing with a teething baby, I couldn't help but sit back and think about (for a lack of better term) how awesome God really is. I could name you reason after reason as to why I think He is pretty cool. There have been moments in my life where He has delivered me time and time again. These were moments where I either felt alone, felt lost, felt down, felt betrayed, felt sad, felt overwhelmed, felt exhausted, felt pain, felt sorrow, felt not good enough, felt unsure, felt heartbreak, felt humiliated, and felt I could no longer carry on again. Christ has never failed me. I am happy to say that my hope rests in Him and in Him alone. I have been through many rough spots, but they have strengthened my faith. I am grateful for them. Since Makia has come back, I have felt so ALIVE. It's not particularly because he is home (although I am ecstatic that he is), but its because I know the reality of God's promise....He has never and will never forsake me. God's just pretty cool like that!


Here is a picture of Olivia looking out of the airplane window on our flight back from Ohio. She has flown a total of 6 times in the past 5 months of her life. She is now a seasoned traveler! I wonder if she will be a pilot when she grows up......


Olivia got to go swimming for the first time at Grandma's house in Dallas. She enjoyed the water very much. She also got to go swimming at Derry and Bert's house in Ohio!


Our trip to Texas was also very special because Olivia got to meet all of her great-grandparents. Above you will see us with my father, grandma, and grandpa.


Here is a picture of us with Makia's father, and grandmother.



We also had the opportunity to attend our cousin's wedding. While we were in Ohio we attending Rachel and Matt's wedding which was beautiful.


When we were in Texas we went to Chris and Bernie's wedding which was also very pretty!