The Race Is On!

Last weekend we went away for a break before our adoption happens. It is a good thing that we did! We expected that it would take until July for our paperwork to be processed. It was a huge surprise when we arrived home and a letter had come from DSS saying that our paperwork had been processed and they are now looking for a child to place with us. Oh My Goodness! That was a little scary since we had not really begun preparing the nursery. (There is a lot of work to be done!)

Luckily, we were able to get my aunt over and she helped me clear out the room and strip the carpet on Monday. (What a way to spend our day off!) Today she and my uncle came back and started painting for us. Hopefully by next weekend the painting will be complete and we be have someone lined up to lay the wood floor for us. If you know of anyone, please pass the info on.

Thursday I started working on a special gift for our new addition. I hope to finish it early in the week. Well, pray for us! Things are going to have to go into overdrive now. We knocked out 3 more graduations this weekend. Bryan is currently at a graduation party and we have a ceremony to attend tomorrow. Next weekend there are 2 more graduations and then a week until HS camp and MS camp the following week. I am a little nervous about getting things done since I will be alone a lot the next few weeks. Please Pray!!!!

124 days and priceline.com

124 days until what you may be asking yourself. Well, if you must know, there are 124 days until I turn 30. I would not be sharing that information but Bryan and I are in Atlanta for the weekend and my age is really showing. We are staying at the Marriott Marquis Downtown. Priceline picked this for us. (This was my first try at priceline and I must say we did pretty well!) It is within a few blocks of everything downtown including a MARTA station.

I LOVE being in the city and I LOVE walking. However, I can totally feel the fact that I am 124 days away from 30. By 5:30 or 6:00 I was exhausted and my feet hurt so bad. I am so out of shape!!! I am a bit embarrassed. We didn't even start until 11:30 or so this morning. My day is typically much longer than that. It is 7:15 and I am sitting in the bed in the hotel. This is unheard of! My husband is not complaining though. He much prefers this to my typical see all, do all mentality.

Our hotel is nice. We are on the 20th floor and no, we are no where near the top. I have never stayed in a hotel this large (not even in California). I knew I was in new territory when my ears started popping on the elevator. CRAZY! You can check out the pictures.

We toured the new World of Coca Cola this morning. I had not been there in probably 15 or more years. It has recently been totally renovated and they will celebrate their first birthday in a few weeks. There, I got to have my picture made with a polar bear. I walked away with a free glass bottle coke and some snazzy 3d glasses.

Tomorrow is the big day... IKEA here we come! I am really excited. As the natives would say (or Ryan Seacrest at least)... Holder out.

Pet peeve

So today I got a little aggravated! Anyone that knows me, knows that I am a planner and very systematic. I don't do well outside of my routine. Routines are comfortable and predictable. Most everything I do is done systematically. In the morning if I don't do everything exactly the same, I leave something out (forget the mouthwash, deodorant, etc). (Yes, I know that is gross, but it is true! I am just being real.) Today, somethings happened at church that took me out of my regular routine and I got really aggravated. I don't understand people sometimes. Why can't they just go with the plan. Oh well, I just needed to vent. Hopefully, things will be back to normal next week!

Another beautiful baby!

Our family was blessed with a new addition this week! Lawson was born on Wednesday morning at 6:45. He is very cute! Congratulations Courtney & Graylon!

The World's Newest Mini Rock Star

Last Friday (May 9th) our friends Chase and Casey gave birth to a precious baby boy. Emerson is heart breaker with his cute little nose and red hair. Enjoy!

Tomorrow I will share the newest addition to the Hall family. He is a cutey too!

Memphis here we come

Last month we made the trip back to Memphis to prepare for our upcoming mission trip. Yet again, God used Brinkley Heights and its people to show me some important things. It is truly amazing what they are doing in that community. They are in the most literal sense the hands and feet of Jesus.

As we toured the neighborhoods surrounding the church, God began to speak to me about my life. He made it very clear to me that your mission field is where you make it. I have always believed that you can share the gospel in your everyday life right where you are, but this was different. All of the sudden I felt like this was truly my purpose. The idea of missions hit me in a way like never before. For the first time in my life, I really felt like missions was part of my purpose. I felt God telling me that it is time to step up and be intentional about missions.

In his usual style, God took me out of that situation and brought this up again in a completely different setting. (I guess I must be hard headed, because He always shows me things in multiple ways that don't seem logically tied together before I really clue in.) On the way out of Memphis we decided to spend the night in Nashville and visit a friend, Sara. (Sara is an incredible young woman that we met through Taylor.) Sara invited us to attend a Sunday service at Fellowship Church in Brentwood. The Sunday before, the church had not met and instead had their small groups go out in the community and serve. The pastor spoke briefly about serving and allowed the congregation to share their experiences. God almost seemed to be smacking me over the head saying, "See you can do this anywhere. This is what I have called you to."

I have always been afraid of the call to missions, because I thought that meant the jungles of some far away country. God has made it very clear to me that their are plenty of mission opportunities right hear at home. Please pray for me as I muddle through this and pin point exactly where God wants me to go with this.

Lots of excitement!

We are adopting! Life has been a little crazy lately. Trying to make efforts to get our nursery & house ready has been a little overwhelming. We have far more stuff than I realized. This is something that we have been working on since January, but we just told some of our family this weekend. It was an exciting weekend indeed. Saturday our nephew Jamie graduated from Winthrop. Sunday we shared the news with my family and Jeremy made it home from Iraq. Thank you Jesus!!!

It looks like we could possibly get our little one between June and August. Please pray for us! Of course parenthood is prayer worthy on its own, but this is all happening at the craziest time of year for us. May, June, and July are our busiest times of year with graduations, summer camps, and mission trip. I know God has a plan and will work it all out for us, but it is all a bit overwhelming right now.

Keep checking back to find out about our status and my latest thoughts on the subject.

More fun photos!

This is another photo that I took in downtown Greenville. Can you guess where it is?