Wordless Wednesday

I’d go anywhere with these two!

This year Spring Break was nothing short of UH-MAZING!  We got to spend the ENTIRE week at the beach with my family.  We have been doing this tradition for the past three years, but the first year we only got to stay three nights because of soccer practice, and last year we did not attend due to Brad’s awful shoulder surgery!  This week with Brad and Emery was EXACTLY what this working momma needed! 

Easter at the Beach!  Brad and I had the great opportunity to go to Easter service at the brand new Newspring campus in Myrtle Beach.  We didn’t realize it was their VERY FIRST live Sunday until we got there.  What an amazing experience that was!

To say that Emery loves the beach is about the understatement of the CENTURY!!  She loves the sand, the water, the birds, the waves, EVERYTHING about it! 

Y’all look at those back rolls!!! LOVE it!

I know that you are not supposed to say this about your own kids, but gosh she is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen!

The best parents in the ENTIRE world!!

This is pretty much the emotion Emery had the whole week since she had the constant attention of EVERYONE in the family!

I’m bummed that I did not take more pictures of everyone else (I was too busy relaxing and playing with Em), but we had a great time with my parents, Haley, Riley, Aunt Terri, Uncle Kurt, Brooke, Lee, Grandbess and Grandbud.  Thank you Grandbess and Grandbud for being the most selfless generous people I know to invite us all down for a week of relaxing and spending time together as a family, we love you!

Lynchburg Children’s Museum

One of my coworkers was nice enough to offer us some free tickets to the children’s museum in Lynchburg, and we jumped on that chance!  I wasn’t sure that there would be much that Emery could do there, but it sounded like a fun family day trip.  Luckily, I was wrong and there was a TON of stuff that she could do.  There was a whole farm section for toddlers, a HUGE play place in the middle of the museum with TONS of slides and ladders and tunnels, a water section, a bug section, and the list goes on and on!  My favorite area was the area about the human body, LOVED it!  Here are some pictures from our fun trip.

The museum was in a beautiful historic part of downtown Lynchburg called the Riverfront (I think)…anyway it was the perfect photo op! :)

I’m a VERY lucky girl!!

My girl loves to read!

Pure joy!

And then there were 4!!

 

Yes, Emery is going to be a BIG sister in September!!  Details to come :)

A Shift in Perspective…

I don’t think it’s a major secret to anyone that I have had a HUGE desire to be a stay at home mom.  This is honestly something I have struggled with since the day Emery was born.  I’ve been bitter about having to work, jealous of moms who get to stay at home, and down right mad at the Lord for calling me to be a working mom.  Another thing that you may or may not know about me is that I am a control FREAK.  I like things done the way I like them done, I like knowing when they’re going to happen, how they’re going to happen and why they’re going to happen.  I am ESPECIALLY a control freak when it comes to Emery. 

Our life group has been doing a study on the book “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan which I have read before, so I wasn’t expecting to learn much the second time through, BUT the Lord had other plans!  Many of our discussions have centered around surrender, and during one particular discussion on Chapter 7 we were challenging each other to pinpoint the one thing in our life that we desire more than God, or that we love/value more than God.  In Chapter 7 of “Crazy Love” Chan gives many examples of men and women in The Bible who had faith and were totally surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ.  The example that stuck out to me was of Abraham lying Isaac down as a sacrifice ready to take his life (Hebrews 11:17 –19).  I immediately knew the area of my life that was not surrendered was Emery. 

As our group is doing the Crazy Love study our church is doing a sermon series on “When You’re Out of Time, and Other are Cutting in Line”.  I immediately thought yes I’ve been waiting on my stay at home mom prayer to be answered for two years now, pastor is going to fill me in on how to make that happen…SWEET!  Umm..wrong again April.  Several weeks into the series he talked about how we must trust God with our smallest faith, and he specifically spoke to the “control freaks”…he may as well have held up a sign and said “HELLO APRIL COLLINS I’M TALKING TO YOU RIGHT NOW, YOU NEED TO TRUST HIM WITH EMERY AND SURRENDER!!!”

You see the whole time I’ve been praying the wrong prayer.  I’ve been asking God to show me what he wants me to do, and honestly I don’t think he cares WHAT I’m doing.  He just wants me working.  I’ve made it about myself and what I could do for my students, when it’s been about HIM all along.  I’ve thought I can’t be a mom to these kids and to Emery, but that’s not what he’s wanted from me.  He has simply wanted me to work and give up my days with Emery because that is how he is asking me to “sacrifice” her just as he asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.  That is how he wants me to let him be Lord over my EVERYTHING, including my Emery.  He loves her more than I EVER could, and he wants me to TRUST him WITH her, not just to trust him FOR her.

So, now nothing is different in my life, but somehow everything is different.  I still go to work at the same job everyday, I still send Emery to the sitter everyday, but my perspective has totally changed.  Everyday I get to wake up and tell the Lord that he has ALL of me, not every part except for one, but ALL.  I am so excited to see what he can do with my ALL because I know its more than I could ever do on my own.