For everything there is a season...

I am finally getting some time to let all the changes we are going through set in and put all the pieces together. Also, many have asked questions, so I am writing to fill you in on what God is doing in our lives.

I am writing from the cozy living room of my parents’ house where we are calling home for the next couple weeks. We moved out of our house just two days ago and are still looking for a new home. Let me back up and start from the beginning.

About two years ago God began speaking to my heart on facing my fear of the unknown future and allowing Hector to boldly lead our family with my full support. As you all know, Hector has been a part of the ministry of Casting Crowns for about 13 years. Ten of those years he has been traveling on the road with them. What a huge blessing it has been to be a part of that ministry and see God work through it in some incredible ways. Those involved in Casting Crowns have become our second family and some of our best friends. However, God has been shaping Hector’s heart for worship ministry within the local church. Even the mention or thought of him leaving the band and taking a full-time ministry position sparked fear and a load of concerns within my heart for a few years. But at a summer youth camp with our students at West Rome Baptist Church two years ago, God boldly confronted that fear and whispered in my heart… “You are holding Hector back.” Ouch! I humbly received that word from Him, and He immediately began working in my heart and mind!

I then began a journey with the Lord showing me how much I desire control and how it is rooted in fear; fear of the unknown and fear of failure. I have by no means experienced complete victory in this area of my life, but I am thankful for the patience of my Lord and the way He graciously convicts and then instructs us. As I have walked this journey, God has been creating in me a deeper desire and conviction to have Hector home more consistently for our boys and for our family. Hector's heart is first for God, second to be a godly husband and father and third for the church and discipleship. You can imagine how he has felt pulled over the last few years with a career that demands him to be away from home and church quite a bit. You can read more from his heart soon on the Casting Crowns Blog. For me, just before the Lord provided this opportunity I was so ready for a change and wondering how long we would have to wait to see it come to fruition. What a change the Lord had done in my heart!

Through Casting Crowns’ connection with Global Youth Ministry we have a close friend who is on staff with Sugar Hill Church in Sugar Hill, Ga (about 1 ½ hrs. from Rome). What began as a passing comment to him about Hector’s desire to lead worship for a church one day has now led to him being offered a position as worship pastor at Sugar Hill. Upon our first visit to the church, before knowing a position there would ever be available, we have felt a peace about it and knew we would love to be a part of that church. To be honest, I was hesitant to entertain the idea because it seemed like such a good fit and I feared disappointment. I thought surely God was going to test my faith drastically and call us somewhere far away from friends and family and everything familiar. (Evidence that I have not fully surrendered my fear of the unknown! Ugh!) So as talks began with the pastor at Sugar Hill and the possibility of a position there became apparent, our hearts were clinging to the Lord and seeking His wisdom. Could God really be providing the opportunity for my husband to be home consistently and fulfill His desire to minister within and serve the local church?  Within a few weeks it was evident the Lord had orchestrated events within the church and the staff to confirm their desire to have Hector join their team. I will never forget the feeling when Hector called on his way home from a Starbucks meeting with the pastor and told me, “They want us.” The reality hit like a brick and I was excited, relieved and sad all at the same time. This not only meant Hector would be leaving the band, but we would also be leaving Rome, where we have made a life for ourselves and began a family. Not to mention, my parents live here and we have a great community of friends! Bittersweet has been the only way to describe our emotions! I think we say it every time we talk about it. So after talking with Mark and Melanie and the pastor of the church, it was decided that Hector would be done with Crowns at the end of December and start at the church at the end of January.

We have had such a peace through the whole process! The church has been so generous and flexible with us in understanding the major change this is for our family and not to mention the baby we had on the way. Our next major concern was selling our house in a terrible market at a terrible time of year - going into the holidays. Trusting in the Lord’s calling and His provision we knew He would sell our house in His timing. We listed our house and within three weeks the first people to look at it offered us a great offer and we accepted it with plans to close just before Christmas. Wow! God is so good and this was another major confirmation on His call for our family. The rest of the details continued to fall into place and we closed December 20th and they allowed us to stay in the house until January 3rd because Hector was gone the whole week after Christmas on his last trip with Crowns. Packing up a very full house with a new baby and a 3 year old was a little difficult, but we did it (with lots of help) and all our things will sit in storage until we find a home in the Sugar Hill area. We have so many examples of his faithfulness to call upon when we get discouraged about being “homeless” and so we anxiously await the house He has for us.

We are definitely closing one amazing chapter of our lives and beginning an exciting new one with this transition. We anticipate many new memories and friendships as well as trials and hardships along the way. We are praying the Lord prepares our hearts and our boys for this new life we are beginning. Rome is the only home Cohen has known, and it will be tough for him to leave the church, school and friends he knows and loves! We covet your prayers for his little heart and our wisdom on how to handle each day with him. I believe this will strengthen his character and stretch him for good as it will Hector and I as well. Thank you for following our family and praying for us along the way. We are so blessed and grateful for the friends God has given us with each new season.

Camping with Cohen

We decided to take Cohen on his first camping trip about a week ago. We had not braved the woods until now because he is such a finicky sleeper...especially during the day. But since he is handling no naps better these days we decided to try it. I love camping and have missed it over the last few years! We thought this fall would be a great time since it would be before the baby arrived and Hector has had some more time off. SO...we packed the truck and headed for the mountains; Fort Mountain to be exact. Here is Cohen rather excited to head out! 

Fort Mountain has some beautiful views! This was just before we pulled into the state park.

 

Cohen loved helping Daddy with the fire!

Our humble little tent site. Cohen was matching quite well. 

Our first night we had Taco Soup; an easy and yummy camping meal!

Here is evidence that I can cook outside. 

Cohen's favorite part...and Mommy's too...was s'mores!

Our second day there it rained all morning, but we braved a couple trails after it stopped. Cohen was really a trooper. I overdid it a little and felt the repercussions for a couple days. 

But it was fun, and Cohen kept us laughing. 

 

Daddy had to assist from time to time when he got tired.

The campsite had a cute little playground that was a nice addition! 

Making big splashes with Daddy. I think he could have done this for hours!

Feeling the water at the boat dock.

 Our last morning was pretty chilly! Here is our little guy all bundled up by the fire. 

And here is our yummy breakfast before we packed up and headed out.

We ended our outdoor adventure with a trip to Hillcrest Orchards to pick apples. However, there were not many apples left to pick, and it was absolutely madness at the orchard. I can't say it was our best idea or that we will be going back, but Cohen did get to pick a few apples for 

some homemade applesauce. 

We definitely made some sweet memories and hope to do it again soon. 

We are thankful to live so close to such beautiful landscape! 

Finishing up

We are finally finishing up the baby's room. Who, by the way, we have decided to name Noah Kai. After praying, researching and looking through scripture we have decided we love the meaning and the legacy Noah left for his generation and truly all Christians and non-Christians who know his story. More about his name another time. My last project for the room is a gallery of frames/pictures representing his name. (In short, Noah means peace and Kai means rejoice (in Finnish) or ocean (in Hawaiian.) 

Thanks to the help an resources of my wonderful mom, the crib now has a skirt and the window is "dressed." I really do enjoy sewing but have not done it enough to tackle it on my own. Not to mention I don't own a sewing machine. So we spent a couple days together mastering a few projects. The first was a roman shade. I found a tutorial on Pinterest and loved the idea of using blinds to make a roman shade. I wasn't confident it would work, but it turned out great! We did need to add brown panel curtains to the sides because our windows do not have casing and it looked a little bare. But here is the final project. 

 Next, we made a crib skirt out of some coordinating material. It turned out really good although our crib doesn't show the skirt all that much. It was definitely needed.

 Here is a shot of the room so far. With some extra fabric we also made a couple pillows. One of which I actually did all by myself. It is looking much cozier. Now we just need a few things on the walls and I think I will be happy. It has been fun making up our own idea for a nursery.

Still making room for baby...

Well, we have finished the majority of our rearranging/redecorating adventure to make room for our new little arrival in a few short months. In the last couple weeks we have finished Cohen's room, our new den, and moved all the baby's furniture into his room. We still have some decorating to do in the baby's room but it's coming along. Here are a few pictures of the latest changes:

 Cohen loves his new "big boy" bed.

His train table and toys.

He had to get under the covers for a picture. 

Dresser, shelves, map to keep up with Daddy and calendar. 

 Cohen's reading nook. 

Sweet boy with his favorites...Bob and Larry!

I'm so glad we got this little table for him to do arts and crafts. 

The baby's room is still a little bare but the crib is reassembled and in its place.

Baby's rocking chair and changing table/dresser.

The next phase will be decorating the baby room with a new roman shade, pillows, crib skirt and wall decor. It really has been fun rearranging and redecorating. I'm thankful for our home and look forward to bringing baby boy #2 home in a few months. 

Operation Make Room for BABY!!!

I have been awful at posting this year! Spring was really tough with Hector gone quite a bit! Cohen and I stayed busy which meant I was tired by the time he was in bed and blogging didn't make the priority list. However, I felt like our newest adventure was definitely worth a blog post! As most of you know, we are expecting our 2nd little boy in just 4 months. We are so thankful to announce that he is growing on time and appears healthy up to this point. With the news of another child in our humble home, we had to start thinking about how to make it work. We are thankful to have an extra bedroom but it is packed with...well, stuff! Office stuff, music stuff, craft stuff, and everything else that doesn't have a place and can't bear the heat of the attic. Our thinking turned to action when we found our second pipe leak a couple months back. We had it repaired only about 9 months ago and heard leaking from the same spot. Thankfully, it was the same area just the cold instead of hot water and was a relatively minor fix. However, the carpet in our extra bedroom/office closet had been soaked (for the 2nd time) and into the room. We knew we wanted new carpet if we were going to make that a baby room so, we decided to begin the transformation then instead of put the room back together. 

We cluelessly tried to navigate our way through choosing new carpet and Operation Make Room for Baby began. Here are a couple pictures of the room in somewhat of its original form. 

We decided to turn our dining room into a den/office area. After storing the dining room table and chairs, the first thing to move was the desk. This has actually worked out great for Hector to do his school work. He was using the dining room table or our bed because the desk was often cluttered with junk. This has been a great place for him to study and not feel stuck in a cluttered room. Doesn't he look studious? (Side note: He amazes me with how well he manages his time between being on the road, studying, and being a husband and Daddy! And he's making awesome grades! I'm a fan!)

Here is the empty room with new carpet, patched nail holes needing new paint, and Hector's Albert Pujols stuff he was struggling to take down. We left the room its original green thinking it could go with either gender. 

Hector working hard to repaint our patched holes. He had to do more than expected when I gave him the totally wrong color paint to cover spots the first time. Oops! He's a trooper!

Cohen has loved the new play space! Mess or not, hey it's something new to explore! 

Next we did some research and then made our way to IKEA to buy almost everything we would need to make the transformation complete. We got Cohen a new bed, a dresser to use as a changing table, a toddler table for Cohen to have in the new "den" and some odds and ends. 

It was great to get so much accomplished in one trip! 

Hector had a little helper getting ready for this baby nursery. It was really sweet!

The one thing about getting all the furniture from IKEA was that we had to put it all together. It was actually much easier than anticipated. The dresser/changing table was our first project. We love it and found this cute lamp for $10 at IKEA too! 

After moving the desk and couch to the den, the next addition was Cohen's little table. He loves it and it fits great! I'm so glad he has a place to color and do our preschool work. 

Here is a picture of the den in it's current state. We are still waiting on a rug to be delivered and need a couple new pillows. Otherwise we are happy with it. We may miss our dining room table from time to time, but feel like this was a wise move and it has really made our living space seem bigger because it opens up into the living room. 

Next on the agenda is putting Cohen's new bed in his room, returning his toddler bed to its crib state for the baby, moving the glider into the baby room, and creating a little reading nook for Cohen in his room. I also have solicited the help of my mom to help me make a roman shade and bedskirt for the baby's room. I will post again soon when things progress.  

No bitter root...

I have been a part of a women's Bible study once a week for the past few months. It has been such a blessing to sit before such godly women who are truly seeking the Lord daily as a wife and a mother. I have been challenged, encouraged and overwhelmed with wisdom. We are finishing up The Resolution for Women by Priscilla Shirer. I definitely recommend it, by the way! A couple weeks ago I was reading through the chapters about forgiveness. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to be struck deeply as I evaluated my relationships and couldn't pin point a major area of unforgiveness. However, towards the end of the section the Lord gently whispered, "this is for you." She was discussing how resentment and bitterness take root when we are hesitant or refuse to forgive. When we are quick to forgive we are guarding our heart from any root of bitterness! That wasn't too hard to swallow, but then I read this:

"If a mother expects to enjoy her children, she must rapidly release any hurt they inflict upon her, not letting it settle inside and fester into resentment."


"rapidly release"... Suddenly, conviction welled up inside me.  I am often guilty of holding Cohen's disobedience against him even after he has been disciplined and apologized.  In these times, I find myself still fuming 15 minutes later about something he did while he is joyfully playing again. I realized I am choosing to inhibit myself from enjoying him and demonstrating Christ's complete forgiveness. Somehow I think he needs to really see how much he upset me or that I don't want him to think he is getting away with disrespect or disobedience. In turn, I'm making him pay doubly by my wrong attitude, and I 'm missing out on the joy of those moments because I'm choosing to harbor resentment. Ouch!

I have to choose to forgive him completely in that moment not when I feel like it. Usually this is the toughest when Hector has been away for a few days or we have had a particularly defiant day where the acts of disobedience are racking up. But, the Lord showed me that is no excuse! God forgives me immediately and completely every time I screw up with no lingering harsh tone or attitude. My deepest desire is for Cohen to see Jesus in me and have a desire to know His deep and everlasting love. I have also realized in my flesh and on my own, immediate forgiveness is not possible! I must be abiding in the Spirit to demonstrate this love and forgiveness to my child or anyone else. One thing that has also helped to be a reminder to be quick to forgive is we are teaching Cohen to not just say he is sorry when he has wronged us or anyone else, but to ask for our forgiveness. (Thanks to our good friends John and Virginia Moore for that tip!) Now, I may have to take a deep breath, but there is nothing more convicting than the voice of your 3-yr-old son asking for your forgiveness. I have to pray in that moment and ask the Lord to allow me to forgive him completely and move on...even if we do it all over again in 10 minutes. Only by God's grace will Cohen see how much his mommy and daddy love the Lord and are doing our best to "bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." (Eph. 6:4)


"Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." Hebrews 12:14-15

Goodbye Two's

Let me start by saying WOW...it's been forever since I have blogged. I did finally change my Christmas background but have yet to post anything in over 2 months. Hector was home all January which means I'm on the computer less. And since he has started back on tour, I have been spending my evenings working on Cohen's 3rd birthday. Yes, I have been planning and preparing for a month. I love new projects, especially when it involves crafting so it was a welcomed use of time. However, I have not taken the time to sit and blog about life. I have decided to bullet point the last couple months instead of rehash what I had hoped to write about. So here goes...

- Christmas was low-key due to sickness throughout the whole family (both sides) but such a joy to watch Cohen graciously and unexpectedly receive his gifts.

- We have enjoyed Hector's time off through the end of January.

- Hector took a quick 9 day trip to Australia and New Zealand with the band.

- The tour kicked off the first week of February and will

go through the beginning of May.

I could elaborate about the ups and downs of life these past couple months but I'm going to just jump into Cohen's birthday party which we had last weekend. We had to work around Hector's schedule so we celebrated a little early in "farm" fashion at my parents house. I decided about 2 months ago to have a Farm/Barnyard theme for his birthday knowing that it could rain. However, I believed it was the best fit for him this year and forged ahead with plans. praying the whole time for nice weather. I began scouring the internet for ideas and came across some really cute but majorly over-the-top parties. I picked some reasonable and fun ideas and started planning. The invitations came together pretty cute and the other preparations followed suit.

I was pretty excited about it...and then about 2 days before I realized the forecast called for not just rain...but really cold rain. I accepted the inevitable and made a few adjustments to our plans. God was definitely reminding me He was in control and that I had to trust Him, regardless of my plans. (Side note: these tests have been rather abundant these days! But praise the Lord He is a patient teacher!) Thankfully the rain did stop about an hour before the party began, but the bitter cold wind and wet ground definitely put a damper on the outside activities. The other blessing is that kids generally don't mind cold so they were good sports and enjoyed the hay ride and pony rides anyway. My Dad even constructed a covered wagon for the hay ride in case it was still raining. And no we didn't rent a farmer to drive the tractor, that is my Dad dressed in his overalls and cowboy hat. He was awesome!!

The pony was also thanks to my parents. After realizing there wouldn't be much playing outside, they decided renting a pony would help give the kids something to do while only exposing them to short amounts of wet cold. As dirty as he was, he was a hit! And I am grateful for their generosity!

Inside, we dressed the house with farm animals and hay bales. I loved making all the decorations for the food table! And we borrowed a table from our church's children's ministry as a craft table and place for the kids to eat. It was pretty cute but had to be in the middle of the room because our original plans were to have it on the porch.

The birthday boy at the front door.

It was a great turn out!

So thankful for all our friends and family who braved the yucky weather!

All the kids bundled up for the hay ride!

The menu:

Pulled pork and chicken sliders

Fresh Fruit kabobs

Tractor Parts (pasta salad)

Pig slop (black bean and cheese dip)

Garden Vegetables

Cow patties (brownie covered oreos)

Haystacks

Cupcakes

Cupcakes! (Looked cute, but disappointed in the recipe!)

His long-awaited cupcake.

So, good bye twos! I'm pretty sure three won't be a breeze, but we are proud of the little man Cohen is becoming and pray this year is filled with love, joy and many cherished memories.