Caroline's Dedication Sunday

Well Hello there! I have been a little big slack in blogging recently... And I am 100% okay with that. Life has been busy, busy, busy, and very FULL... and all free moments have been spent with my precious girl. She is fun beyond words these days.

I have missed my little sphere of the world wide web though, because it is such a good thing for me to take a few minutes and reflect on this crazy beautiful life. It is therapy, and it helps me to weigh down these life moments and savor them. I have more thoughts on the "why I blog" topic, and I feel like that will be coming soon... 

okay, okay.... so I am excited to share pictures from Caroline's dedication at church last Sunday. I love our church. It has been a huge blessing in our Virginia Adventure. We have such wonderful friendships that continue to grow, and I have a group of ladies who challenge me to be a better mama, wife, and woman. Thank you dear friends!

Now our girl... she was beautiful. And loved being up front. And she held onto Pastor B's hands the whole time he prayed over her. It was precious. 

My Mama came up for the weekend, and Jay's parents, and Uncle Chris and Gavin joined us in celebrating this special day. And they joined us for a Chili and Cornbread lunch back at our house after. Perfect for a very chilly day. 

Bella felt the need to distract Caroline during our family picture... she was here first after all!

My Mama gave Caroline this dress before she was even born. It was her first Grandma purchase once she knew that our Baby was girl :)

This girl ADORES her DaDa... and her mama adores that she is a daddy's girl already.

A little karate anyone? She wasn't feeling the traditional posing for this after church photo shoot. She was too busy! Thats the norm these days. 

Caroline's motto: "Don't stop moving unless I'm asleep." 

Speaking of moving... she finally got out of her dress later that day and was ready to get a move on in her "car"... and side note, are her eyes not gorgeous? I know I am partial, but seriously. So blue. So, so pretty. 

"The Lord your God is with you,

He is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you; 

He will quiet you with His love,

and rejoice over you with singing."

-Zephaniah 3:17

Caroline this remains our prayer for you. That as you grow you understand the magnitude of God's promise to you. He loves you so deeply, and so fiercely. As much as mommy and daddy love you, God loves you ten times that amount. We pray that as your grow, God gives us the wisdom to guide you and direct you and point you towards Him. You are our joy dear girl, and our blessing. Lean into His love and allow it to lead your life. 

Daddy & Daughter

There is just something special about Daddies and Daughters. 

I know from personal experience. It is the greatest earthly relationship their is.

Caroline - I know you won't understand this now {or anytime in the near future}, but one day you will understand how amazingly special and unique your bond with your Daddy is. It is precious. And you have a tremendous Dad. He is the BEST. He adores you, and protects you, and will challenge you, and he will make mistakes, but he will love you for always. Mama will too, for sure, but Daddies and Daughters are different. 

Our family is into making the memories count, dear girl. So, hold them close to your heart. Life changes so fast, and the chance to make new memories can be gone in an instant. 

You have our heart Caroline, and your Daddy is head over heels for you. 

 When we were in the mountains, Caroline, you had just woken up from your nap, and you happened to be dressed in your Clemson tee, and Daddy was too. It was too perfect a moment to pass up, and the lighting has so great, and I LOVE the way these photos turned out. 

 These are images I will hold in my heart forever. 

 Caroline, your Daddy will teach you all about football... and Clemson football for sure. 

 He will teach you to throw a football, and play lots of sports. He will teach you to drive a car, and climb mountains. He will teach you lots of life lessons, and you will probably teach him some too... {you already have in just 4 short months!}

 Daddy will protect you will strong hands, and it probably will break his heart to let you fall down one day, but Caroline, your Daddy knows what strength is found in the getting back up. He will coach you and guide you, and lead you, but then let you be you. Daddy can't do that for you. Only you can be you. But he will be cheering for you. Mama will too. 

 Daddy will show you how important it is to dream really big. Daddy is great at that. He thinks big, and accomplishes even bigger. He works hard, and plays hard too. He will teach you all about that. He will teach you this in the way he lives his life. It is just what he does. It is who God created him to be. 

 Caroline, you are blessed to be your Daddy's daughter....

... and he is blessed beyond belief to be your Daddy. 

And Mama is the most blessed of all, to get to watch how this amazingly special relationship grow. There isn't much in this life that will make my heart smile any bigger. 

our girl

{All Photos taken by Lucy O!}

"The Lord your God is with you,

He is mighty to save,

He will take great delight in you,

He will quiet you with His love,

and He will rejoice over you with singing."

-Zephaniah 3:17

This is the verse the Lord gave me for our girl while I was pregnant. It is truly what I desire for Caroline to know about Him as she grows. It is printed above her changing table, and it is one of the verses I tell her everyday. This verse paints a simply beautiful picture of what God desires to be in all His children's lives... If we will allow Him to... walk with us through each day...save us through His Son... delight in us as his wonderfully made creation... quiet the storms in our lives with the peace that is found in His true and deep Love... and show us what true joy is found in Him when we choose relationship with Him. 

Caroline - I prayed this verse quite a bit before I really knew you... when you were just a baby in my belly... but now, now that I really know the sweet little girl that you are, and now that I can look into your eyes, and kiss your cheeks, I am daily praying that you grow to understand the heights and depths of this verse and that you wrap your life around its truths. 

Over the past month, the Lord has shown me another couple verses that I have also begun praying over your life as you grow...

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God"

-Phillipians 1:9-11

Caroline - Mommy and Daddy pray that you grow strong in wisdom and discernment. We desire for you to be pure in heart and blameless in the Lords eyes through the Grace that you accept in Jesus Christ. We know you will make mistakes, and you will even be our little sinner, because thats what we all are. Our prayer is not for you to do everything perfect... no, our prayer is that you Love Jesus and are found to be righteous through His blood. 

Jesus has a plan for you sweet girl and it will be for your life to reflect His Glory. 

Go get 'em girlfriend... and we will be here to guide you. 

We will pray fervently for you... 

and we are committed to loving you. 

You are our girl.

You are our blessing from the Lord.

{All of these are pictures from our newborn / one month photo shoot taken by our friend Lucy from Lucy O Photograhy! She is so very talented and such a sweet girl. And she just had her own ADORABLE Daughter Edith! Check out her blog and her work... Thank you Lucy for capturing our girl so well! We are in love with all of these pictures}

Prayers for you Baby Girl: "I don't want you to be good"

I have always admired and respected Lysa TerKeurst of Proverbs 31 ministries. I love her blog and her heart for people. She is also married to a Chick-fil-A Operator in Charlotte, NC. I have followed her blog for several years and am continually encouraged by her wisdom and honesty.

A couple of days ago I came across her post about not wanting to raise a good child. I also saw it on my friend Meagan's blog. I read this post several times and have read it out loud to Jay and just can't seem to get it off my heart. So if you are a Mama, or a Mama to be like me, or if you think you ever want to be a Mama read this and let me know what you think.

Baby Girl...

My prayer for you these past couple of days is that you are not a "good" child in the world's eyes or even in your mama's eyes. I want you to be a child of your heavenly Father. I want you to be great in His Holy and Perfect eyes, and I want you to accomplish amazing things for His Kingdom, and I want you to figure out what that looks like for your life in His timing.

My prayer for myself is that as your Mama I let you be a naked fountain jumping kiddo. Not that I am encouraging such exact behavior, but I want you to be independent and to explore and to love the journey of life. Lord give me the grace to laugh at such experiences and to continue to teach me what being a humble Mama looks like

I am pretty confident, that based on the fact that your sweet daddy was most definitely a Naked Fountain Jumping kind of kid, that you will most likely give this neat and tiddy, and organization loving mama a run for her money. And I pray that God gives me the grace to remember that He is in control and not me. That he has plans for your life that I don't know about, and that He will make you Great. I will simply be blessed to be your Mom and strive to teach you what it means to daily follow Him.

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." - John 8:12

Walk in the Light precious Baby Girl. Embrace the abundance. Enjoy the journey and adventure of life.

Love, your Mama

Y'all also check out this cute little girl and her Birthday Challenge. What a neat little girl... I bet she was a Naked Fountain Jumping toddler too :) It makes my heart smile! 

Happy Weekend friends!