Lessons Through My Children

Everyone says that when you have children your life will change. I don't think I ever could have imagined how true that statement actually is. Yes, I have personally changed, my marriage has changed and my day-to-day life has changed. But I never fully realized how much having children would effect my relationship with the Lord.

Let's start here.....

In my "younger years" I made tons of mistakes. I realize now how selfish I was. Even if I knew the Lord was strongly telling me to walk down one path, if that was not the path I wanted, well, I did not always take it. I knowingly walked into sinful situations time after time. Looking back I can see a pattern of brokenness after every period in my life when my relationship with the Lord struggled. I always grew closer to Him during this time of brokenness, however, I always asked "Lord, why do I have to experience this amount of pain?" I would think "If You can do things like part the Red Sea can't you just teach me this lesson without having me go through so much heartache?"

And then I had kids........

When Campbell first learned to walk I would get so nervous watching her walk around our family room due to the fact that it was not baby-proofed yet. We have an entertainment center in the corner of the room that would easily hurt her if she fell on it. So clearly, she would continually clumsily walk toward the entertainment center. Time after time I would put things in her path to try to distract her. I would pick her up and face her in the other direction. I would even pop her little bottom and try to talk sternly to her. But without fail, she would continue to rebel against me and eagerly walk toward what she knew was off limits. One day I realized that the only way she was going to learn that the entertainment center was dangerous for her to play around was for her to fall and get hurt. So one day I sat on the couch as she pranced on those cute little pudgy legs toward the entertainment center and I held back every impulse to run and save her. It broke my heart. I knew she was going to be in pain. But I also knew that I loved her too much to continue to watch her continually walk towards a dangerous situation. So I sat and watched, just waiting for that moment where she would truly learn. I sat on the edge of my seat just waiting to run and scoop her up and love on her and kiss all of her "boo-boo's" until those tears stopped flowing.

Then I understood.

The Lord never wanted to see me in pain. He just wanted me to truly learn. I realize now those times when He was allowing me to experience brokenness were times when He was loving me in a deep and intimate way. He was drawing me away from my sin and toward Him. Away from danger and toward safety. I realize that not only did He not want to see me hurt, it absolutely broke His heart. He was waiting to come and scoop me up and love on me and kiss all of my "boo-boo's" until those tears stopped flowing.

Praise Him.

Thank you, Lord, for what You teach me through my children.

Happy Birthday, Campbell!!

Campbell,

You are two years old!!! I can't believe you turned 2 on August 5th. You are looking and acting more and more like a little girl instead of our little baby. We feel like we blinked and you are all of a sudden dancing around the living room with your little purse on your shoulder and putting on your pretend lipstick. You have such a sweet personality that is full of energy and curiosity. You are so adventurous and enjoy stressing mommy out by climbing to the tallest point you possibly can and jumping off of it. However, when you flash that huge grin of victory mommy can't help but smile at your fearless spirit. Daddy and Mommy just melt watching you run around the house with your bouncing blonde curls and your beautiful blue eyes and we are tempted to give you anything you want when you show us that pretty smile or start bursting out in that contagious laughter. We absolutely love hearing you talk and are so proud when we see that look of determination on your face when you are trying to figure out how to say a new word. You are starting to put sentences together now and while we are so proud of you when you get the sentence right we absolutely love it when you get the sentence wrong because it is ridiculously cute.

Your favorite thing in the world right now is your piglet doll. However, piglet is not the only stuffed necessity in your bed at bed time. We also have your Minnie mouse doll, two bunnies, a lamb, a monkey, shamu, baby shamu, 2 baby dolls, a zebra and a blanket. You are so thoughtful and you want to share your pillow with all of them so you don't have much room left. You LOVE, LOVE, LOVE shoes! You want to put on a pair as soon as you wake up and you have recently starting telling me "no" when I pull out the wrong pair until I get the exact pair out that you want to strut around in that day. You love your purses and your play make-up. You also take great care of your dolls by telling me you need to change their diapers, feed them and burp them. They are so lucky to have you. You love to play your Disney princess CD player and dance around the room. You are such a good little dancer. You love to have books read to you and love watching Strawberry Shortcake, Sid the Science Kid, Mickey Mouse Club and Curious George on TV. You absolutely LOVE to be outside playing and if you see a set of stairs you could spend all day going up and down them.You are SO much fun!!

You have blessed our life more than you could ever imagine. You bring us so much joy and have given happiness an entirely new meaning. We are so proud to call you our daughter. We pray that we love you in a way that points you to Christ and that you commit your life to loving and serving Him. It is our prayer that you always have confidence in the value and worth you have as a child of God and that you choose to have faith and trust in Him. We want you to always be secure in knowing that we love you so, so much and there is nothing in this world of greater value than our family. Happy birthday, sweet girl:)

Love,
Daddy and Mommy

The Gang

When Campbell goes to sleep (at bedtime and during naps) her list of "friends" that she has to have in bed with her has grown and grown. It started out as just Piglet (or "Pigga") and 2 small stuffed animals but apparently she thought that the "gang" needed some more members. It absolutely cracks Blue and I up! She totally recognizes if someone is missing and calls each one of them by name. She also wants to share her pillow with each one of them so it make things kinda crammed when she lays down at night. But if she is happy, we are happy:) I snuck in  the other night after she was asleep to take a picture........

She is such a good big sister to Piper. Whenever Piper seems upset Campbell does whatever she can to make her happy. If she cries Campbell will run in with a diaper and say "wet" to let me know I should change her, or she will come in with a bottle or a paci to let me know she  might want one of them. P.R.E.C.I.O.U.S. Well, Piper was on her playmat the other day and Campbell wanted to share her "gang" with her. I am not thinking Piper is as much of a fan..........

However, once Campbell got one of her books and started to read to Piper she calmed down. Campbell knows all the tricks.........

Piper is 6 Weeks Old!!!

I can not BELIEVE that Piper is 6 weeks old today! Our lives are so blessed because of her. We took her for her one month check-up last week (I know, it was a week late) and she is doing great! She has gained a little weight and is now up to the 36% in weight and dropped to the 84% in height. She has consistently been getting up one time through the night (usually somewhere between 2 and 3 am) and then starts the day between 6 and 7 am. So for a newborn, that's not bad - we'll take it!! One night this week she actually slept about 7.5 hours but we decided not to hold out hope that that would be a continual thing (YET!) :). She is such a little snuggler and just loves to be cuddled (which I would love to be able to do ALL DAY). I just keep looking at her and want to soak in these moments as much as I can because I know I am going to blink and she is going to be asking me to borrow my car so she can go to the mall. We love her so incredibly much and are so happy to have such a perfect addition to our family. Praise the Lord:)

Silly Little Girl

This is how I found Campbell when I went into her room first thing this morning to get her for breakfast...........

Piglet on the Big Screen

Last weekend we took Campbell to her first movie - Winnie the Pooh. My sister kept Piper for us so that we could spend some time with just Campbell. In case you are reading this and you are unaware, Campbell's greatest treasure in life is her piglet stuffed animal. I mean it truly is an endless kind of love. She wants to take it everywhere, she sleeps with it every night and if we happened to forget it when we run errands she starts asking for it in the car. She sits in the car seat and continues to say "Pigga" hoping that I will magically pull him out of my purse. It really is precious and I want to permanently seal the image of her cute little arm wrapped around him in my mind........L.O.V.E. I.T. Anyway, we thought Winnie the Pooh would be the perfect choice for her first movie. It went really well too!! I mean for a 23 month old it went GREAT! They were having technical difficulties at first so it was about 30 minutes late starting (which led us to getting free tickets...yay) so since Campbell finished eating all of her popcorn before the movie even started we got a little concerned. But once she saw the love of her life on the big screen all was well:) She was completely into it for the first 30 minutes or so, then she got kind of restless for about 15 or 20 minutes and then she was back into it for the last 10 or so. We had such a great time!!!

Blue and I tried to take some pictures with her in front of the movie advertisement, but clearly the glare won the battle...

 Campbell with her first movie popcorn

 This was the Winnie the Pooh booth. They had little Piglet, Winnie and Tigger hats you could take for your child to color on and wear....super cute!! 

Back into the Swing of Things

You know, as I wrote that title I realized how ridiculous it actually was. Isn't it kind of impossible to really feel like you are getting back into the swing of things until you actually know what the "swing" is?? Because in all reality Blue and I are totally still flying by the seat of our pants. I still have no idea what our new routine is.  Piper will be 3 weeks old on Thursday so we are  definitely still in that "newborn unpredictable night sleep" schedule, which then translates into the "daytime I'm so tired and want to take a nap but feel like I should clean something" schedule. I know that this time period was hard when we had Campbell, but it's funny how the Lord sort of blocks that out before you have the second child. Well, we now remember:) But I am not lying when I say we are still having so much fun and are so thankful to have a reason to be figuring it all out. I feel so unbelievably blessed. Holding that precious little girl is worth every under-eye dark circle I have. Tonight I was just looking at Piper, Campbell and Blue while we were hanging out in the bonus room and was just in awe thinking how blessed I am to have them. I love them so, so much.

Campbell is adjusting really well to being a big sister!!! She loves to give Piper her paci and help give her her bottle. We definitely still have our moments where she is having to learn to share or moments when I need 20 more blankets of protection around Piper's little body because Campbell doesn't realize she can't use Piper's head as the means to push herself off the couch, but I know that will come with time:) She really is doing so good. I was so, so concerned about that. I just did not want Campbell to feel pushed aside and was so worried that she would struggle with jealousy, but everything has been going great!! We have just been trying to focus on keeping her involved in what we are doing with Piper and in making sure we give her special attention while Piper is sleeping. But I mean really, why was I ever worried?? Campbell is a rock star:)

Piper Claire Bryan

She is finally here!!! Well, she has actually been here for about 2 weeks, I just haven't had time to post anything. Piper was born on June 16 at around 8:20 a.m. and weighed 7 lbs. and 3 oz. and was 21 inches long. She is doing great and we are COMPLETELY in love with her.

I will write more later but here are a few pictures for now.......

Very, Very Pregnant!

I have one question.........How in the world am I about to give birth to my second daughter in less than a week?? Where has the time gone?? I can not believe that it is already time but I can not begin to tell you how THANKFUL and how EXCITED I am that this amazing time has finally arrived! On Thursday, June 16, at 8 am  I will have a c-section and will finally get to meet my second little girl, Piper Claire Bryan. We are beyond thrilled and are so thankful to the Lord for choosing us to be her parents. Praise the Lord!!

Side Note: I think we all need to address, and maybe even pray over, the size of my legs, feet and above all my ankles (if they even deserve to be called that anymore). I do believe they have taken on a complete life form of their own. Ridiculous. I mean don't get me wrong, it is totally worth it and I would gladly pay that petty little price a million times over to be able to have and meet Piper. I'm just sayin'........I'm a freak show.

It's been a while....

So my biggest excuse for not blogging in so long is that we did not have a working computer at home for a while.  That is valid, right? But if we are all being honest, after we finally got one I had gotten so out of the habit of blogging that I am just now hopping back on the wagon. I truly have missed you blogging world.

There have been so many things that have happened in our lives lately that I am not even going to try to play catch up with it all - I am sure it will all come out bit by bit in future blogs. But things have been going great in the Bryan household! I am going to brag on Blue for a minute - his project got passed in the Doctorate of Ministry program at Southeastern so he got his snazzy letter from the school letting him know that he  is officially a doctoral degree candidate! We are so proud of him! So if everything goes as planned he should graduate next spring. Campbell has been doing great as well! She is growing like a weed and making us laugh more and more every day. She is hilarious! Her little personality just shows itself more and more. I can't believe she will be 20 months old on April 5th?? Where in the world has the time gone?? Baby Bryan #2 and I are doing great as well! I will be 28 weeks on Thursday and will be entering the good ol' 3rd trimester. All of my appointments have been well though so she seems to be growing up to speed:) We decided to name her Piper Claire Bryan. It is so nice to finally be able to refer to her by her name instead of saying "the baby" all the time:)

Anyway, here are a few pictures.........

Catch-up

So, clearly I haven't blogged in a while. Honestly, things have been so insanely busy for the past month (or more) I just haven't made the time too. Any spare time I had all I wanted to do was sit on my tail and stare at the TV - and those times were very few and far between. We had company in town or we were out of town for a few weeks and then a very, very close friend of our family passed away so I left Blue and Campbell and headed to Columbus, GA for the visitation and funeral for a couple of days. It just feels like so much has happened in the past month I am still trying to process everything. We have had so many joys and we have had some heartache and I think right now we are all emotionally and physically drained.

And then came the winter storm:)

I mean seriously, to say that the Lord made me smile is an understatement! This was absolutely perfect timing for us. We were all trapped in the house for three days!! No schedule or anything. B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. Blue had to work on some schoolwork Monday and Tuesday but it was so great to just have him in the house. He spend Wednesday just hanging out with us. The Lord knew that we needed some down time together and He sure did give it to us. We played in the snow a little bit on Monday but Campbell is not what I would call a snow bunny - she wasn't a huge fan. She was pretty skeptical but I am sure that will change over the years.

Blue is out of town at the moment and has the computer that I have to use to post pictures so I will post some of those when he gets back:)