Family.

I have a prayer request.
My sister, Ashley, is a runner. She ran track all through high school and has been competing (and placing!) in 5Ks for a while now. She was beginning to train for 10K when she started having pain in her hip. Her initial thought was that it was a stress fracture from all the running she had been doing. After a few weeks and the pain not subsiding she decided to go to the doctor. After x-rays and an MRI, she found out that she has a tumor. We, later, found out that it is, thankfully, benign, but it is very painful. It hurts to sit, stand, lay down, walk, and carry her children, basically all of the time. She has 3 kids and her youngest is in the throws of potty training. She has been on crutches for 6 weeks and awaiting a big surgery that will put her on bed rest for a long time. But, you know what? Throughout all of this, she is still smiling; trusting in our God. She loves Jesus and her joy comes from Him.
She is a constant encouragement to me.
Please pray for my sister and her family as they have a difficult road ahead of them.

A couple weeks ago, my sister's husband, John, was going to be out of town for a few days and wouldn't be home to care for Ashley and the kids. So, John took Ash and the kids to my parents house so my mom could help out. Aubri and I jumped at the opportunity to help mom with her house-full and get some quality time with all and met up in Arkansas.
Now, to be honest, it was a crazy week. But, the time I had with my sister was worth all the craziness. We had "slumber parties" just like we did when we were little, and stayed up WAY too late talking and laughing, we snuck out during the kids' nap time to get snocones...ok, ok, enough with the mushy sister stuff. I will show you some pictures from our time together instead...
(I still can't post pictures of my newest little nephew, Elijah, but AS SOON as his adoption is finalized I will post his cuteness for you all to see!)

Nana and Bri at the park.

Cousin time!
Aubri and John Michael.

Fighting, er, I mean, taking turns on the slide.

Papa T was helping fix my car
so we were able to drop by and get some Gamma and Papa time, too!

Papa T and Bri

We had a great time in Arkansas but we couldn't wait to get home to see Dada. We also had Mima and Poppie coming to town for a visit and to help celebrate Dada's birthday! Yay!

Me and Mima got "makeovers" while we were out shopping.
(She's going to kill me for posting this..) :)

Mima and Bri

WHOA! That's a lot of candles!
Happy Birthday, Dada! We love you!

We had a great week seeing family!
Good is good to use His people to encourage one another! We are blessed.

West Africa

We are so thankful that our church was able to send Wes and I and another couple (Clay and Robin) as the arms of Redeemer Church to wrap around the our friends and the new African believers and for giving us the opportunity to encourage and love on them in person. We were so excited to get to Africa and see the work the Lord is doing through our friends. It was an amazing, life changing trip. God is good.
Here are a few pictures.

On our way!
It was a. very. long. flight. But, worth every minute!

Our friends were praying to thank God for the "blessings"
our church sent with us to give them.

Helping make some pizzas from scratch.

Doing a little substitute teaching.
I was so excited to pick H's brain about how she homeschools her kids.

Off to the village!
Of course, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the babies!

Simply precious.

We were so excited to get to share about our family with the believers in the village. God was good to use WA's life as a beautiful testimony of His steadfast love and continued grace. They were very curious and asked many questions.

Praying together.

Robin, Leah (0ur translator), and I gave manicures and pedicures to the ladies and little girls in the village. It was blessing to serve, love, and pray for them.

We had a wonderful opportunity to worship with some believers in the village at night. For 4 hours, we sang praises and told stories of the Bible with many men and women as their children slept on the ground around us. It was beautiful. God was glorified.

Orange Beach-2011

A few weeks ago we took a family vacation to Orange Beach, AL. We went with Wes's childhood best friend and his family. We had a GREAT time!
I am terrible at remembering to take pictures, but here are a few that I took.

Mother's Day.

Mother's Day weekend we were in Arkansas to visit our new nephew/cousin, Elijah.

We had a WONDERFUL time!
At Nana and Ops, we spent time fishing, grilling out steaks and burgers, riding on Ops tractor, getting in the hot tub, walking and strolling around the lake, watching the geese fly and swim in the lake, having a pizza picnic, running in relay races, and so much more.

We were able to stop by and have a Mother's Day lunch with Aubri's Mima and Poppie and swing by and see Papa on our way out of town. We missed you, Gamma!

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

It is a tradition that anytime the Carroll family gets together we have pancakes for breakfast.
The grandkids get to help Ops make them and only Ops and his helpers know the "secret ingredients". Aubri is finally old enough to help and she loved every minute of it!

Ops got a new lawn mower...er, I mean, tractor.
He took turns pulling the grandkids around in the wagon and, then they each got a turn driving! Aubri, of course, was a little hesitant at first, but after she saw her older (and younger) cousins do it, she was more comfortable.

Nana and Aubri on Mother's day.

We went over to Poppie's mom's house for lunch and saw Mima and Poppie.
Blake and Aunt Erica stopped by too! We had such a fun time laughing, talking, and making a video to send to great-Mamaw Peggy.

I LOVE Mother's Day. It is one of my favorite days.
You know that feeling right after you have a baby when you want to show the world how precious your sweet baby is?
Well, that is how my heart feels on Mother's Day.
I am so proud and grateful for my two babies.

Mother's Day 2008
I LOVE this picture.
This is a picture of my first official Mother's day. I was 6 weeks pregnant with Aubri.
My Mamaw and my mom had come to Texas for Wes's graduation and I was honored to celebrate with two of my favorite moms.

Mother's Day 2009
This was my first mother's day with my baby girl in my arms.
I am so thankful that God gave me such a beautiful and sweet little girl.

Mother's Day 2010
Last year on Mother's day, we found out that I was pregnant with our son, Wesley Adam. What a special day; I celebrated with a little girl in my arms and a little boy in my belly.
Thank you, God, for giving me a Mother's Day with Wesley Adam. You are so gracious.

Mother's Day 2011
Wes, Bri, and I celebrated Mother's day yesterday. They took me to my favorite restaurant for dinner. We planned to go by the park on our way home to play for a little while, but it started raining, so we headed home for a game of shopping cart basketball in the living room instead.

"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward."
Psalm 127:3

The happenings.

I have sat down many times to write a post but, it never gets finished, therefore it never gets posted. It must mean that it is the end of the semester when life gets crazy. Yep, that would be it. Here is my final attempt to catch up and fill in all the blanks.

We have had 2 new additions to our family- 2 nephews!
Asa Peter Macke was born to Wes's sister Ashley and her husband, Jonnie, in April. He was 3 weeks early but is strong and the whole family is doing very well! We are so anxious to meet that precious boy. Whenever I show Bri his pictures she says "I wanna hold da baby". Me too, honey, me too!

Baby Asa

Also, my sister, Ashley and her husband, John, are in the process of finishing up the paperwork for their newest addition, Elijah! He is home with his family and seems to be transitioning pretty well. He is a the cutest 2 year old (besides my Bri, of course. :) I have ever seen. We went to Arkansas this past weekend to FINALLY meet him. I found myself just starring at him because he is so beautiful.
(Because they have not finished the paperwork for his adoption, I cannot post his pictures online, but, if you are interested in reading all about their family and their adoption of Elijah, click here.)

In March, my Aunt Barbara, my 2 cousins, Anna and Taylor, and Anna's son, Silas, came to visit. They stopped in FW for a few days and then we took a road trip to my mom's to see more family. We had a wonderful, encouraging, yet interesting visit. You can read all about it here.

Anna and Silas

Ahhh, Easter. We had a wonderful Easter. Our church did a wonderful job of encouraging worship in our hearts and homes in the weeks leading up to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter celebration. Our little family woke up early on Easter and read about Christ's resurrection from the Bible and had breakfast together. We got ready for church early so we could go to the cemetery. We had received a letter in the mail earlier in the week to let us know that WA's memorial tablet had been installed and we were so excited to see it.
What better day to go see it than the day we celebrate Christ's resurrection and the promise of His return!?
It was a day full of emotion, but we were so encouraged!
WE HAVE HOPE IN CHRIST because HE LIVES!

O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15: 55-57

That should catch us up on the big events. Here are a few pictures to share our day to day activities.

Aubri getting the dreaded haircut.
We are keeping it short in hopes of thickening it up a bit.
She hates getting her haircut but it is SO precious.

This girl LOVES to swim!

Bri reading books.
We read ALL day long!

I am helping a friend out for a few weeks, by watching her little girl during the day.
Aubri has made a new best friend.
She loves to hold her hand and give her her paci.

We have been spending lots of time outside
since we are having such beautiful weather.

Picnic time.

Wes played his last season of intramural basketball.
His team won the championship!
We loved going to the games every Thursday.

Nana came to spend a week with us.
No one was sick, recovering from surgery, or had just had a baby, so we didn't put her to work. We were able to enjoy getting out and running errands, shopping, playing, going on walks and a basketball game and talking. It was a wonderful and encouraging time for our family.
Thank you, Nana for coming!

Me and my friend, Nicole, ran the Zoo Run 5k again this year.
We had didn't set any personal records but we had lots of fun!

Mother's Day post coming soon. :)

Due Date

January 15th was Wesley Adam's expected due date. For me, it came with dreaded anticipation. But, just as He has guided us through everyday, Saturday was no different-the Lord's grace was sufficient. Yes, there were many moments of emotion, but the Lord's peace was very present.
We knew we wanted to make a trip to the cemetery. Thankfully, for us, the cemetery is not a place of grieving and heartache. Though Wesley Adam's body may be there, he is not. He is in the presence of our Lord and his body is no longer broken. As much as I wish he was here with me, I know there is no other place that he would rather be-what a wonderful truth. While we are at the cemetery, our thoughts are often turned to Christ's return and when all things are made new. Wesley Adam is buried in a section of the cemetery called Bluebird. Right behind Bluebird is a Jewish cemetery. We often excitedly joke that when Christ returns, Wesley Adam's body will be resurrected along with God's chosen people! We are weird...I know.

While we were at the cemetery, we stopped at the funeral home to order Wesley Adam's memorial stone. This is almost more than a mother can bear. I forced myself to go through the motions and choose a stone as if I was picking out groceries at the supermarket-it was just easier that way. If for a second I let myself think about what I was there to do, I would fall apart. Aubri was with us; what a blessed distraction a 2 year old can be.

We finished up and went out to eat at our favorite Mexican hole-in-the-wall. Wes and I prayed together and had really good conversation. We were encouraged.

The day was good. The Lord used it to draw us closer to Himself. He opened our eyes even wider to the brokenness of this world. He quickened our hearts even more to cry out COME, LORD JESUS, COME!

White as snow.

This past weekend we traveled to South Arkansas so visit my grandparents. We had not seen them since last May and it was high time we did. Mamaw's Sunday School class has been a great encouragement to us as they shower us with daily prayer and frequent letters. There have been days that I would go to the mailbox and pull out a stack of envelopes and not recognize a single name on the return address label. We were really looking forward to having the opportunity to meet these ladies and show our appreciation.

So, Friday, we packed for our 2 night stay and made the 4 hour trek. We had a wonderful time with Mamaw and Papaw by catching up and telling stories. And of course, we were spoiled with all of Mamaw's cooking.
On Saturday night, Papaw and I met my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins at their church for a concert. We froze, but had a wonderful time. Mamaw, Wes and Bri stayed home but had an equally great time taking a bath and having a dance party.
Sunday, Wes and I went with Mamaw to her Sunday School class. As each of the ladies went around the circle telling me their names, I became completely overwhelmed with emotion. Each name was one that I recognized. All of the ladies had been faithful to the Lord and encouraged me, their sister in Christ. What a blessing it was to meet them.
When we returned to our car after church it was sleeting. It continued to sleet and snow for the next several hours. By 5 o'clock that evening, we had accumulated 8-10 inches.
Needless to say, we were snowed in.
So, our 2 day stay turned into a 4 days. They Lord must have known I need that extra time with my grandparents. Here are a few pictures to recap our "vacation".

Mamaw and I sat looking out the window watching the snow fall. She said "Jenny, every time I see the snow I am reminded of the Isaiah passage, 'though your sins are like scarlet, they will be made as white as snow', now that is white-that is FORGIVEN."
Yes, ma'am.

Tuesday morning, we packed and headed home. Thank you, Mamaw and Papaw and the Fords, for a wonderful long weekend. Thank you for encouraging us, speaking Truth to us, and loving us.