I sit here tonight, currently holding my precious little boy in my lap as I write this.

Actually, most of these posts are written with him in my lap or beside me in his swing.

It is amazing all the things we do together.

It wasn't until last night that Josh and I had our first date without Micah. Thanks to some good friends for offering to watch him, or we would have just taken him out to eat with us... again. :)

We had a great time. Just talking without interruption (almost forgot what that was like!) and we even reminisced and played Josh's "question game" (see previous post).

But we missed Micah. He is part of our family now and it felt like someone was missing the whole time.

People have given us lots of advice. On parenting. On marriage. On marriage, while being parents. And they always make sure to remind us to "still make time for each other" now that we have a baby. I'm sure this will become more important the older Micah gets. But right now, he is much more of an addition to our family than a distraction. He brings us more laughter, more smiles, more empathy for others with children, more surprises (for sure!) and just an overwhelming feeling of love.

He is a living example of Josh and I's love for each other.

How amazing is that?

And our love overflows into our child. He is loved so much.

It's hard not to feel worried sometimes that we will do something wrong as parents. I begin worrying when I see others share how their child is sleeping through the night or eating baby food like it's candy or growing in the 90th percentile for their age. It's hard not to compare.

But then I remind myself that women have been doing this for ages. How did Eve do it? How did Mary do it? It somehow comforts me to know they didn't read Babywise.

Advice is good. Even extremely helpful at times. But there are some things in life that just need to rest in the hands of our Savior.

And I believe children are one of them.

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please pray for Micah as we go back to Shands on Monday for his heart checkup! thank you so much.

// Click here if you missed Part 1 of this series.

He picked me up around 5:00pm sharp to take me to dinner before the football game. I remember walking out of my dorm building and seeing him leaning on the drivers side door of his light blue toyota camry. (I drove a toyota corolla. We were kindred spirits right away) Tall, dark and handsome. With the most perfect smile I had ever seen. As soon as I made my way over to his car, he had already walked around to the passenger side to open the door. I remember mentally taking note of this sweet act of chivalry (it didn't come too often those days!)

Once we were on the road, he made me feel comfortable right away. He asked me to call up one of his friends and leave a funny voice mail. Seriously? Yes. That is what he wanted me to do. So here I am, with Josh, on our first date and acting ridiculous on a voice mail to one of his buddies. I don't even remember what I said. But I remember thinking it wasn't very funny and I hope I didn't fail some sort of "test." But he laughed hysterically at me and I immediately relaxed knowing I had earned his approval. :)

The conversation flowed so easily from the drive to dinner. I wish I could remember all that we talked about, or what we ate (this is when Instagram would have come in handy!) but it's true that people won't always remember what you said or what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel. And I remember quite vividly how he made me feel that night. I felt at home.

We had a two hour drive to the football game after dinner. But it felt like 30 minutes. We talked the whole way. Josh even came up with the "question game" where we went back and forth asking a question that both of us had to answer. It was fun and we learned so much about each other on that short long drive.

I'd been around quite a few guys with wrong motives by this point in my life. And I could immediately tell two things about Josh - 1) He was completely sincere in wanting to get to know me for me and 2) I was pretty sure he didn't do this all the time.

And by this, I mean take girls out.

There was such a genuineness about him. That is probably my favorite thing about our first date. I felt like I was special, and not just another girl in a line of others he had wooed with his charm.

My second favorite thing about our date was how excited he was to see his students at the football game! And even greater, the fact that most of them were in the band. Ha! Not what I was expecting. But awesome, nonetheless!

It was at this football game that I realized he wasn't going into the ministry as a career. He was doing ministry with his life.

"Student pastor" may have been his title, but he was way more than that. He was their friend, he made them feel important. And he made me feel blessed just being there with him (things haven't changed much, let me tell you!)

After the game was over and we were walking back to his car, a funny thing happened. The temperature had dropped quite a bit, so I crossed my arms and rubbed them while mindlessly saying, "Ooh, it's cold." This was not intentional. I was not fishing for anything. But, oh dear, Josh totally thought I was. Yes he did. And he was going to do something about it. Next thing I know, I have his arm straight across my shoulders, while we are walking. The timing was just all off, so he kept banging his arm into my head. And I couldn't handle it. I just started cracking up. It was literally one of the most awkward moments ever (and we still laugh about it today!).

But apparently it wasn't awkward enough to keep us from going out on another date. And then another. And then before we knew it, we had spent nearly every day of the next two semesters together.

And then came time for Josh to graduate. 

(to be continued...)

// As we approach the "month of love," I thought it would be a perfect time to share a little of my husband and I's love story with you! :)

I think it's pretty great. And a testament of God's faithfulness in our lives.

But I don't want to give away too much too soon.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

It was the fall semester of 2005 when I first stepped foot on a college campus. Bible college. After fighting with God on going, I finally surrendered to His call on my life for ministry (there was a lot of back and forth struggle on this that I am purposely leaving out of this post to focus on the amazingness of meeting my husband). I had been warned that boys walked around on their knees there. That girls were known for going to bible college just to get their "MRS" degrees. So I was persistent on making sure that did. not. happen. to me. I was going to avoid guys like the plague. At least single guys. Specifically eye contact, none of that.

For the first couple months weeks, I really tried. I spent lots of time with my new dorm girlfriends. Staying up too late, watching chick flicks in our 20x20 foot room. Or even going out to play a little guitar by the beautiful lake on campus. All girls. All the time. It was loads of fun.

Until I met my husband.

Well, okay... to be honest, I didn't really, actually notice him the first time I met him (I told you guys, I was avoiding eye contact). I was just shooting some hoops in the gym (okay, not the best place to be if you are trying to avoid guys) and he walked up beside me and started complimenting me on my shot and telling me I should be in the "WNBA." Seriously, funny guy. (I mean, I know I'm good and everything... but I gave up on my basketball dreams a long time ago when I stopped growing past 5'3''). I didn't tell him all that. No, in fact, I gave him the cold shoulder! Yep. Didn't even respond.

To be honest with you guys, I don't know why. Because, I am naturally an overly-friendly person. Some guys often mistook me as flirty (unfortunately). This is one of those times I look back on as a testament to God really opening my heart for my husband when it was the right time.

And it came. It sure did. About two months later, while playing a game of very competitive flag football. I was one of two girls (okay, okay... I had given up on completely avoiding guys by this point!) on my team called "The Temptations" and we were playing Josh's team, the "Cheeky Monkeys."

It was love at first sight this time.

I literally felt myself drawn to him. This guy, that could catch the football like it was nothing, who walked around making jokes and hiking his pants up to his chest. Yes, this guy was my dream man.

I made myself more available over the next few days. Just hanging out on campus a little longer, eating in the student center, actually going to the library (because I needed to study he was there). And believe it or not, he noticed me back. (It wasn't until later that I knew he had already noticed me, much sooner). It wasn't too long and we were spending time together in group outings. The great thing about a small campus is we already had mutual friends, so that was fun.

It only took a couple weeks of these group outings, before he finally asked me out on a date. Okay, he didn't call it that. And we're probably the only two people in the world who spent their first date at a high school football game (besides, well, high schoolers). But that's what he wanted to do on his friday night. Attend a football game, two hours away, to cheer on students in his youth group (he was already a part-time student pastor at 21). And he wanted me to come.

Uhhh... like I said, dream man.

(continue reading...)