4 Years of Marriage to My Love

This past week Hugh and I celebrated four years of marriage!  {I feel like it was just yesterday when I wrote this post about our 3rd Anniversary!}  We had a date night out, reminisced over the past, and dreamed a little about the future.  It was sweet and we were thankful for the time together.

Here are a few things we're looking forward to in the year to come:

• welcoming Karis Grace into the world
• visiting much of our family (or having them visit us, I should say, as many of them will be coming to MS to meet Karis and play with Enoch)
• joining a church in Starkville
• integrating an international student into our home 
• finishing up a few remodeling projects around our house

Happy Anniversary, Hugh!!  I'm so thankful that the Lord made us for one another and brought us together as one in marriage.  You've been such a faithful husband, and I look forward to what the year ahead holds with you as my loving leader.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”  (Ephesians 5:31)

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The Littlest Medal

We have some real exciting news that we've been patiently waiting to tell for weeks now..  And I thought it would only be appropriate to let Enoch spill the beans, so without further ado...

Little Man is going to be a big brother!!!

And he's real excited...

...As are we!!  We are SO thankful that the Lord has blessed us with this new little life growing inside of me!  

To answer some typical pregnancy questions, we are due near the end of May; I am currently 14 weeks pregnant.  I have been more nauseous with this pregnancy than I was with Enoch, but not to the point of vomiting, thankfully.  We DO plan to find out the gender of this baby (unlike our plans with Enoch); until then we are affectionately calling him/her our "littlest", hence the name of this post.  And although we haven't fully decided where to give birth, right now we are planning to use a midwife who works at a clinic with other midwives and doctors in a (somewhat) nearby town because there is a shortage of well-trained home birth midwives in our immediate area.  

For any proud, excited grandparents who care to listen, this is a recording of the lovely little heartbeat we heard this Tuesday.  {If you've never heard one of these on the doppler, try listening for the "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" sound that's going real fast.}





And lastly, here are a few more of my favorite pictures from our time on MSU's campus taking pics this week.

playing with his block on the brick wall

  

my two sweet men

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3 Years (and counting)!!

Today is me and my hubby's 3rd anniversary!  I can NOT believe that I've already spent t.h.r.e.e wonderful years with this sweet man!!!!   (or should I say that I can't believe my amazing husband has bore with me for three whole years...  he is truly such a patient, forgiving man!)

Check out those excited newly-weds!!

I think it's amazing how much closer we are now than when we first got married!  I would definitely agree with those who claim that in a good marriage, things only get better as they marinate.

I'm also amazed at how God has truly used our marriage to sanctify me.  It's hard to believe how much I've grown in the Lord as a result of my husband's influence and leading.

This was my "YES" high five right after our wedding ceremony.  

What's funny though, is that today I feel even more confident and certain and thankful.  It's humbling to look back on our three years together and be able to assert: YES, the Lord was SO much more than abundantly good in giving me Hugh.  There are innumerable details which God divinely orchestrated in bringing us together and preparing us for each other.  And there are similarly innumerable stories of God's provision and faithfulness in sustaining us as we live out this humbling/sanctifying thing called marriage.  We are trusting in His grace to continue sustaining for the years to come.

And it is my prayer that our love will abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that we may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless on the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.  (adapted from Phil. 1:9-11)

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Where We're Going

Hugh and I are happy to announce that we are headed to Mississippi State University in Starkville later this summer.  :)

It was a tough decision for us for a few reasons:

• We had a few good options to choose from;
• Our options were SO different;
• This is a long-term decision for us;
• We wanted to make a wise decision based on where we felt God could best use us.

We sought counsel, asked for prayer, researched and visited each legitimate option, prayed a lot ourselves, looked back at our past, solidified our vision about how we feel called to serve the Lord, talked with people who had lived in each place, found out about what God is doing in each place, made a pros and cons list, weighted each item on that list by importance in order to score both options, prayed some more, and then we decided.

Having said that, we feel a great peace about our decision to go to MSU.  While we are so, so sad to leave our little home in NW Arkansas with our friends and much of our family, we have known for quite some time now that the day would come when we would have to move.  Not that that makes it any easier.  :(   We are, however, also so so thankful that God has provided Hugh with a good job, and even now we have a clear vision of what our ministry may look like there and how God might use us.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, 

and do not lean on your own understanding. 

In all your ways acknowledge him, 

and he will make straight your paths.

(Proverbs 3:5-6)

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