hope fulfilled

i know you're probably surprised to hear from me.  after all, as my mom pointed out recently, it has been close to two months since i've written.  i've accepted that because of the nature of my business, this little blog will probably have some major peaks and valleys, but as the fall rush is gradually slowing i'm ready to once again overwhelm your eyeballs with photos of my darlings. 

but first...

josh and i decided this year to do something "christmas-y" with the kids each day between now and christmas.  we've got a handful of things already on the calendar - baking cookies, watching "rudolph", attending christmas concerts - but the first order of business was getting our tree up as soon as we got back home from our thanksgiving travels.  so yesterday we pulled the truckload of boxes out of the closet and set to work.  we assembled the tree, hung the lights, and started on the slew of ornaments.  the little ones excitedly grabbed handfuls of them out of the "kid box" while i gingerly unwrapped the ornaments out of the "super-special-please-don't-break-these" box.  i gently picked up one of my very favorites and turned it over to read the back for the 1000th time - for your child known only by god.  then like i have every year since 2005, i wept for the child we lost that year. 



like she has with every little one that has ever been a part of our family, my mom cross-stitched a special gift particularly for that baby and i hang the ornament in a prominent place on the tree each christmas.  but this year, as my mind moved from the loss of our second child all those years ago to judah's death last year, i couldn't help but wipe the tears and smile with joy as i remembered a post i wrote last christmas.  the sixth stocking is a story of grief and hope - grief over the tremendous loss our family had just experienced but hope that in the next year the lord would bless us with a child.  this is the third year that we've hung six stockings on our mantle but it's the first year that our house has been home to six people.  and now, just inches from that first ornament made by my mom is another that she recently gave us...




praising god for his faithfulness!

weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

psalm 30:5

the red plate and two of my men

the year josh and i got married we moved to nashville, TN for a time of leaving and cleaving.  for those of you who know the whole story, you know that unfortunately, nashville wasn't that great to us.  but one of the huge gifts that did come during that time was the ability to spend a lot of time with my cousin and her husband who lived just a hop, skip, and a jump down the road.  tracy and todd had this particular tradition that they had done within their own family for a while, and when we got married they passed it on to us.

the red plate.

what's the red plate, you ask?  well, it's not much more than a. red. plate.  it's more about the who and why of the red plate that makes this tradition so wonderful.  anyone who's experiencing something special - a birthday, the first missing tooth, first day of school, anything - gets to eat their meals that day off of the red plate.  and today was jack's turn - because our big boy turned FIVE YEARS OLD today!!






if you can't tell, jack's stuffing his face with a blueberry muffin (filled with five candles, of course!) before we jetted out the door this morning for our second big event of the day.  another precious man in my life was celebrating a big milestone as well because as of friday evening this week, my dad will officially be a retiree!  his secretary had put together a celebration with several members of his police department and josh, me, my mom, my sister, and our combined seven little people were invited to attend. 



no, the lunch wasn't at the mcdonald's play place, but judging by that crew, it probably should have been.  :-)

**tracy, in case you're wondering, that IS the original red plate that you gave us as a wedding gift eleven years ago.  anytime we've moved it's gotten packed with the 'very important and breakable' box so it doesn't get damaged.  and since i didn't feel comfortable carting it into the restaurant for daddy's big manly retirement party, i'll be serving him some goodies on it this weekend.**

where the wild things are

it's not just a book...it's a place. and i can say with complete certainty now that it's in pine mountain, ga. on our visit to marietta over labor day, josh's family took us on our first "wild animal safari", and we all came home disgustingly filthy...but full of smiles.





if you ask izzy what her favorite part of the day was, she'll tell you with an excited flair that it was the gruffalos. ironically, she'll also ID that as the part she didn't care for so much. but who can blame her? i was thrilled/terrified as well when the massive monsters moved from outside our van window to head-completely-in-breathing-and-slobbering-in-our-faces...






this is when izzy and i almost made a run for it...




sometimes, though, massive heads or expansive horns got in the way of the animals being able to put their whole heads through the window. no worries, though...that's why god made two-foot-long tongues. EEEEK!



and if you're wondering about micah, he wasn't such a fan of the whole mess at first. for all you fellow adoptive parents out there, i know what you're thinking, and in my defense, i had no idea the gruffalos would actually try to get inside the car with us. there was no turning back once we had entered the gates...



but he eventually calmed down in my arms and was content to work the finger-of-much-soothing while he cuddled with grandpam.



you know, now that i think about it, i think the squeals of delight might have been as "exciting" for him as anything else. see for yourself - and enjoy jack's bull's-eye at the :32 mark (or should i say bull's-nose)...

that's what happens when we wake up with nothing to do

two things have been the topic of conversation around here recently:  finding a time to travel to my grandmother's house for a visit and josh's craving for williamson brothers barbeque.  so when we woke up this past saturday with no schedule, no sessions, no plans - nothing! - we made an impromptu decision to kill two birds with one stone.  we headed to the booming metropolis of eastaboga as well as had a delish all-you-can-eat meal at williamson brothers - just outside of atlanta.

yes, it's true...we drove to georgia for lunch.  we don't ever do stuff like that, and it was such a fun memory (despite my pitiful attempts at a full-fam photo)!!




clearly micah's got a lot to learn about having a photographer momma.  he thought our cute photo op was time for a round of "head, shoulders, knees, and toes"...with the emphasis on head.





some of the damage (josh is a pro at this)...



and the day wouldn't be complete without a picture of my sweet meme...



and my sweet tootles on our way home.

a lewis reunion

as i mentioned before, we now have a big one-year-old in our house.  typically around here a first birthday calls for a big celebration equipped with all of our family, balloons, cake, goodies, and a loud rendition or two of the "happy birthday" song.  having only been home a few weeks, though, micah wasn't quite ready for such hoopla, so we opted for a quiet day at home.  but it wasn't without its fun...in fact, we had a huge treat in getting a visit from much of josh's family who came in from connecticut and florida for the day. 



micah got to meet many of his family members for the first time on his birthday...






while the rest of us were able to catch up since the last time we got to be together.







don't worry, micah still got his sugar. 



and aunt jaci and uncle greg might have even taught him a little birthday dance.



the day was made even more special by the fact that micah wasn't the only new baby to join us this year.  baby hadley was a doll, and we were all so thrilled to meet her.



we love you guys!!

best. weekend. ever.

family, friends, dancing, fun, laughter, tears, giving, receiving.  this weekend was busy, but i'll start with this sweet girl...



this weekend was the ballet recital that almost never was.  the dress rehearsal got canceled at the last minute on friday because of the terrible storms that destroyed many areas of the southeast, and what we now know is a raging infection invaded poor abby's ear and almost kept her out of the performance on saturday.  after much praying, she woke up feeling well and chipper the morning of the recital, and she was thrilled to be able to participate in the dance with the rest of her class.



but if abby was thrilled, izzy was ecstatic.  that girl wants to be a "balleweena" so bad she can't stand it, and she was soaking up every minute of the hour-long recital.



this year's recital was called "the joy of the lord", and it was a circus-themed production.  abby's class - the "acrobats" - started their performance with a bang.  if you look behind abby in this picture, there's a little one upside down in a handstand...



...and abby whipped out a cartwheel to add to the excitement.  (please tell me you can see her tongue stuck out in this picture.  she's like her momma in that there's a direct line from her brain to her mouth.  brain concentrates, tongue emerges.)



no offense if you're one of them, but there are some CRAZY parents at these things.  i'm pretty convinced that some of them camp out at the church the night before the performance to get the best seats.  it probably looks like the apple store when a new iphone is released.  a friend of mine somehow scored a seat on the front row and she was gracious enough to offer for me to piggy-back off of her awesome view.  it made for some pretty darling pictures when abby saw me...





but these are some of my favorites...






until next year (when we have two balleweenas)...