Tennessee

     We officially moved my parents to Tennessee over the weekend. We drove 12 hours through the night on Thursday and got there at 10am Friday morning. It was such a busy but good time. We moved and unpacked a lot of stuff, took some time for a short hike, visited and explored the property. We made the 12 hour trek back on Monday night and now we are settling into our new normal. I'm missing my parents something awful. Just knowing I can't run down to visit or even drive an hour for a quick get-together makes my heart ache. Enjoy some pictures from our visit and be sure to check out their website http://www.mountainstreamlodging.com/. The hiking in the Cherokee National Forest is beautiful! I'll post pictures as I sort through them.

Family Outtakes

Here are some outtakes from our last family dinner before my parents move to Tennessee. Our family is getting so big!

Church

     I said I was going to post more about the new church we've been attending soon and since I have a few minutes today is the day!

     This has been a very difficult journey for me. I grew up in a non-denominational church. The church grew and evolved over the years but I sat under leadership that desired relationship with the Lord more than anything else. I stepped away from that church when I was older to try and find my own footing in the Lord. It was a time of rebellion in my life where I really needed to find the Lord for myself and not just because my parents believed a certain way so therefore I would as well.

By the time I came back to the Lord my parents were involved in a house church with several other couples. There was a very real hunger for something real among everyone and a genuine desire to grow in the Lord. The housechurch was a place of great spiritual growth for me. Because there wasn't many of us we all had to contribute and be a part of the meeting. We were able to ask questions during the teaching time and were also challenged to share our own thoughts or understanding of things. My parents led the housechurch and I have never learned so much from my mom and dad as I have within the last four years of my life.

     With their imminent move to Tennessee we decided the time had come for those of us left at the house church to seek new places of worship. It has been such a frustrating time for me. I really wanted to plug into a place that was desperately hungry for the Lord's moving in their midst. A place with annointed worship, real people and leadership open to the Lord's moving more than anyone elses. After weeks of trying different non-denominational churches and coming away very disappointed I did an online search and came across a church with this particular passage as part of their mission statement, "We are a different kind of Church! Our Sunday morning service is a unique blend of traditional hymns with contemporary worship music, believing that people of all ages and preferences have an important place in the church. Matthew 13:52 states, "every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old." We believe in the priesthood of all true believers in Jesus Christ. Therefore we encourage members of the congregation to share what God, led by the Holy Spirit, has put upon their hearts during the morning service. This inspires a flexable, dynamic service where the Holy Spirit can speak from whoever He chooses. We are a church that believes in all the spiritual gifts and hope to be able to use them all for the building up of the body.".

     I got choked up with tears and felt a sense of excitement well up in me! I had been praying during this whole search that the Lord would lead me to the right church. Even if it was full of only old people I wanted to be there if they had the real thing and were on fire for God! I truly didn't want to go into any place and stay unless it was a place I was going to be challenged and encouraged to grow.

     My parents had offered to attend churches with me and our kids so that they could help with childcare whenever needed and also be a sounding board for me. We went for the first time back in November I believe and I've pretty much been going there ever since. The people were as warm and welcoming as I remember our old Fellowship church being. The pastor is one of the most approachable people I have ever met in his position. He has a true pastoring spirit. The awesome thing is that he believes other members of the body have the gift of teaching and so he encourages these men to be the ones giving the messages on Sundays whenever they have a word to share. The worship time is awesome! There is definitely an annointing on the worship there and many times it has turned into spontaneous songs from different members of the congregation. Love that! Oh! Did I mention that about 70-80% of the church membership is in their late 60s or older! I have connected immediately with several of the women from the church and am hoping to have those relationships grow as time passes.

     We are getting ready to bid my parents goodbye in a few, short weeks and these wonderful ladies continue to offer me support and encouragement. I am so grateful for finding this place. My parents have been coming with me all this time and they too have been blessed and in turn blessed others in the body. It feels like they (the church) are on the verge of a spiritual breakthrough into more freedom in their body and I hope to be  part of it. I'm just thankful that for now this seems to be the place the Lord is planting me and the kids. Hopefully there will be more to share down the road!

He's Not a Month Old Until Tomorrow...

...but I just had to share his cuteness!

Blessings

We have been so blessed by the outpouring of love from our family and friends since Tanner's birth and we're basking in it. My family has made meals for us and my mom has gone crazy with homemade gifts that we are thoroughly enjoying. I will get pictures of them up here shortly. :) Howard's family stopped by with gifts for all the kids. We've had neighbors stop by with diapers, small gifts for the older kids, clothes, etc. It's been very touching to see the concern and love from our neighbors. We do honestly live around some of the nicest neighbors we could ever have hoped for!

The church that the kids and I have been attending for the past few months has completely reached out to us and embraced us as family. One of the girls I've kinda "clicked" with made this great cheesecake for us. Some of the blueberries are already missing in the picture because Chase and I went crazy eating them off the cake right away before Howard suggested that I might like a picture of it!

This girl is also the one responsible for the beautiful lilies pictured here. The church family visited us in the hospital, had a flower at the front of the church the Sunday after Tanner was born to celebrate his birth (even though we weren't even there!). We have received phone calls, meals, visits and encouragement from this wonderful body of believers. I want to share more about the church in the future but for now we are just being blessed from all directions and so thankful for all the prayers, support, meals and gifts that have been sent our way. :)



Loving...

...every moment we have with this cutie.

Brothers

Before we had Tanner, Chase told us that he wanted another sister so that he wouldn't have to share a room when the baby got older. We took it in stride and soon after Tanner's arrival Chase came to me and asked if we could move Tanner into his room soon. I had to break it to him that he'd be sharing with Alexa for a little while longer. :)

I love this picture of "my boys" (still weird to think that I have sons, plural). The feeling is mutual between them from what we've seen and I'm praying for a special bond between them as they grow...

Chase has taken it upon himself to make sure that Tanner gets read to. He recites the baby stories that he remembers as he pages through the baby books. It is so cute!