Praying for Haiti

I have been so overwhelmed with the conditions in Haiti. Overwhelmed to the point where I am even having trouble in knowing how to pray. It is so hard for my mind and heart to even process the pain these sweet people are experiencing from the sudden loss of loved ones. Because I can hardly process their heartache, I can barely even begin to grasp the reality of the conditions they are living in – no shelter, no food, no water, utter chaos, etc. I find myself at a loss of even knowing where or how to begin my prayers to our Father. I still pray, but I know that some of these prayers have been consumed with fear, confusion and a frantic and worrisome heart. My heart is so broken for the Haitians, and I realize that their reality has caused fears of losing my loved ones, fears that I already deeply struggle with, to enhance. What is so convicting is that I know this all comes down to trust. Trust in the One who knew us in our mother’s womb. Trust in the One who knows the number of hairs on our head. Trust in the One who created us and loves us unconditionally with a love that we will never truly understand the depths of. I know that God is still God. And in the midst of such tragedy I know that I must approach His throne with prayers of confidence and trust, knowing that the love and faithfulness of our Maker never has, and never will, alter or change. And I pray that this unfathomable tragedy the Haitians are walking through will cause them to bow down to the One who can truly save them. I pray that His name will be glorified.

Is it already January 8th??

For real this time, I am going to do better at updating this at least weekly. Time has just passed exceedingly fast since Christmas.

Anyway……

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! I can not believe it is 2010. 2009 was such a busy and exciting year for Blue and I, it just seems that it passed in the blink of an eye! As I think about this past year and how much the Lord has blessed us, I am just in awe. I think about the wretchedness that I know I deserve and then look around me at all the blessings and grace He has poured into my life and it is just overwhelming. With the Lord’s strength and discipline, I commit to embrace and pass through 2010 with a continued heart of gratitude and praise to our Father and to do whatever I can to bring Him glory. I confess that there have been so many times that I know I have taken His blessings for granted and I have not given enough of my time to Him. So convicting. I so desire to change that.

I gotta say, I had such a great New Years weekend!!! My second family came to visit! We all had such a great time together, just laughing and hanging out. It is always SO GREAT when we all get together, until of course I get incredibly bummed when they all have to leave. I have told them all to move to Greenville, SC – they just won’t listen! It has sort of become a tradition to get together on New Years, except of course last year due to the fact that Rebecca and Ashley have been in Africa for the past 2 years. Can you believe they didn’t make a trip over for New Year’s??? They just don’t care. :) Anyway, it was a great reunion and fun times had by all and I already can’t wait to see them again!

Campbell Brooke Bryan

Here are a few of her newborn pictures that I never posted.......

I just wanted to take a minute to write about my little girl. I love her so much it is ridiculous. Blue and I both are completely obsessed with her. It is so much fun to see her grow and watch her learn and experience new things. She has been trying so hard lately to roll back over from her stomach to her back. She has constantly been automatically flipping over to her stomach whenever we lay her down and then once she gets there she either goes to sleep or after a minute goes into a freak out mode. She can’t figure out how she got there or what she needs to do to roll back over on her back. But yesterday she rolled back over for the first time!! YAY!! We are so proud of her. Sadly, neither one of us actually saw her do it – we just know that she had rolled back over on her back. I think she is going to be sitting up on her own really soon – at least in a tri-pod stance. You can tell she is so determined to do it. She has moments where she just wants to be so independent – she just wants us to put her on her play mat or in her swing and let her be. But then a moment later she just wants to be held and cuddled by one of us – which makes me more than happy: ). She definitely knows what she wants. When she smiles it completely melts my heart. Blue and I will give her anything she wants when she looks at us with that big sweet smile. Hopefully we will get a little stronger in that area :). She has been laughing a lot lately. Blue and I will get so excited when we find something that makes her laugh and then when we do it again she looks at us like she is saying, “I’m over it. Seriously, find something new to do.” It is amazing how ridiculous you will act, even in public, to get your infant to laugh. Totally worth it though. She loves to make noises with her mouth, suck on her fingers and try her hardest to fit her entire hand in her mouth. She has definitely discovered her hands and her feet and will sit and play with them all day. She loves to sit and hold on to little toys and play with them until they eventually end up in her mouth – along with everything else in arms reach. She loves things that light up and make noises – especially this glow worm that her Nana and Poppy got her for Christmas. She fell asleep hugging it the other night and started to whine when I took it away. I feel guilty saying this, but one of my favorite faces she makes is when she is about to cry and she pooches out her bottom lip. It is so cute it is completely ridiculous. I know I should not like it because she is apparently sad or frustrated when she makes it but if you saw it you would totally agree.
Anyway, I know this post is somewhat random, but I was just sitting here thinking about this sweet and amazing blessing in my life and wanted to write a little about her life right now. I have always heard that you will not be aware of the true capacity you have to love another until you have a child. It is so true. The Lord has blessed me beyond reason. Words can not describe the love I have for her. I just pray that He will continue to mold and make me into the mother that she deserves.

I love Christmas!!

So Christmas is just awesome…….that is all there is to it. First and foremost, we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Secondly, it is a celebration that enables us to take a time-out from the craziness of life and enjoy the loved ones He has blessed us with. I just love it.

Blue and I were especially excited about this Christmas because it was our first one with our little bundle of joy. She obviously had absolutely no idea what was going on – she just wanted to eat the bows and paper that the presents were wrapped in. We started our own family traditions this year though, ones that I know will probably evolve with new traditions as our family grows. While we still want to do the whole Santa thing, we really want to raise our children to truly know what Christmas is about, and to not only know it but to be excited about that. I deeply desire them to be more excited about celebrating Jesus’ birth than about seeing what Santa left them – which I realize when they are little can be a bit of a challenge. We are going to do the birthday party for Jesus (birthday hats and all – I want to make it as fun as humanly possible) and read the Christmas story with them. If you have any ideas of more creative ways to make Christmas morning a fun celebration of Christ’s birth please share! I would also love to incorporate a way for us to go out in the community and love on others. This year was sort of a practice round since Campbell was pretty unaware of what was going on, but next year she should be more into it.
We had such a special time as a family though! It was so nice to just relax with each other. We got to spend some time with Blue’s dad and then went over to my sisters on the afternoon of Christmas day to hang out with my side of the family. Then it was off to Atlanta that night to see Blue’s mom’s side of the family. Very fun times had by all. :)
Why does Christmas have to go by so fast??????

Back in the swing of things......

What a long couple of weeks it has been!! My poor little girl got sick a couple of weeks ago and was absolutely pitiful. When we took her to the doctor they did not run any test or anything, they just examined her and told us that whatever she had was viral and just had to run its course. I was super bummed about that because I wanted her to be able to have some medication so she could feel better as soon as possible. Anyway, she started feeling better by the beginning of the next week - about the time that Blue and I started to feel like doo-doo. We ended up catching what she had and after our visit to the doctor found out that "something" was the hands, foot, mouth virus. No good. I ended up being out of work all week and Blue the better half of the week. I guess being able to get some quality time together can come in some crazy shapes :)

So I temporarily stepped out of the blogging world.................but I'm back :) However, all I did was lay on the couch or take care of Campbell so I have absolutely nothing exciting to share. All I have to offer are some fun pictures...................

4 month check-up and a sick baby

Wow......I can not for the life of me figure out how the past 4 months have gone by so fast. It is hard to believe our little girl is already 4 months old. We had her 4 month-check up yesterday and she got a gold star :) She is up to 14 lbs. and 3.5 oz. and has grown 3 1/2 in. in the past 2 months! She is in the 95% for her height, 60% for her weight and 55% for her head. What everyone said is true......they really do grow so fast.

It worked out well that her check-up was yesterday - she has a pitiful cold. The poor little thing can't sleep well because she can't breathe and when she finally does fall asleep she wakes her self up coughing. It is so sad. I wish I could just crawl in her little body and blow her nose for her! She has been pretty bad for the past few days, but I think she is starting to feel a little bit better today, so hopefully she is on the downhill slope.

What a great weekend.....

What a special weekend our family had!! Sunday morning at church we dedicated our beloved baby girl to our Lord and Savior. We were able to stand before our church, along with friends of ours (Kelly and Joey Hall) to dedicate our baby girl, Campbell, and their baby boy, Liam. It was such a sweet time and such a moment marked for accountability. Dr. Barry Jimmerson (who is not only our pastor but someone we hold most dear) did such a beautiful job with the service. Blue and I have committed to raise our children in a way that honors and glorifies our Lord, to strive to model a life that reflects a deep relationship with Him and to lead our little ones to have the same. It is such a blessing to know that our church body and our family are also there to hold us accountable to that. The entire morning was such a special time for us and it meant so much to be able to share it with our family and church body.



The fun did not stop there.........we had the youth Christmas party at our home on Sunday night. It was great to have some time to just hang out with the youth. We just love those guys so much! They are so much fun. Seriously, they crack me up - I loved just sitting back and watching them COMPLETELY be themselves :) They really are great. We played a little white elephant Christmas and grilled out some hamburgers.



What a great weekend :)