So we're new to this, Blogging and the family thing... I guess maybe our first blog should be an introductory one. Justin and I were married last year, March 7th! It was a wonderful day that sort of Kicked off our 2009 so to speak, our lives have been sort of a whirlwind since that point. For those of you that don't know, the time change took place that night, which our hotel didn't take note of. Justin and I had a wake up call, that was exactly an hour too late. Followed by the quickest trip from Greenville to the Atlanta airport, to walk into the terminal as the last boarding call for our flight was being called (good timing huh!). Well we knew God was on our side that day. The honeymoon was an awesome trip to St. Lucia. On our way back, to the good ole ATL we realized that we forgot where we parked the car. Yes, that was an adventure in itself.
Upon our return we learned that Justin's dad needed a liver transplant and had been moved to the top of the liver transplant list. Justin and I looked for houses and we had found the perfect little starter home or so we thought. We put in an offer and two weeks later Justin lost his job. We were sort of bumed because this was definitely not part of our plan, you know we sometimes are so silly to believe that we plan our lives and then God reminds us that he knows what is best, and it's all in his time :D. We were thankfully able to get our "good faith" dollars back and the job loss turned out to be one of the biggest blessings of the year. Justin was able to help out with a special needs camp that I was involved in at work over the summer and most importantly he was able to be with his father and his mother during the Transplant in June.

In July Justin started helping my dad do odd jobs off and on to supplement income when he wasn't going to interviews and what not and in August he found a great job with a SC faith based, sales company. In early August, we found out we were pregnant! We were so excited we had to tell the grandparents. They were all so excited, My mom however made it abundantly clear that she would not be called Grandma, Dad was so excited he told everybody he saw and Justin's parents were just as excited! Everything was going great by this point. Papa, Justin's dad, still had a long road to recovery and had his share of complications but things were definitely looking on the up and up.

Then September 27th I received a phone call that changed my life, my mom called and asked to speak to Justin. I handed the phone to Justin and my mom explained that my dad had fallen in the yard and had stopped breathing, she had called EMS and they were "working on him, and taking him to the hospital". An Hour later, when we arrived at the hospital, we learned that my dad (who was 49 at the time) had passed away from a massive heart attack. I learned that day how fragile life really is, and that our life truly is but a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away.

I had to keep it together, My mom had been with my dad since she was 14 years old, and God granted me the strength to do just that (with the help of my new husband). Justin was such a help, he and I were able to help my mom through the arrangements and get her life back into some semblance of an order. I don't know what we would have done without Justin's family's encouragement and the strength of my aunt Patty and several others. Justin's New boss was awesome, he allowed Justin to be off with me and my mom for a week. He stated that "he lived life for God first, then his family, then work..." I knew then that God had been in control this entire time and We were all going to be ok!

The Holidays were the holidays, we decided to make new traditions and stay busy and now here we are 63 days from the most wonderful thing we will ever experience, the birth of our son. We cannot wait for Max's arrival and we are thanking God for every blessing he's given us thus far. It's been a roller coaster of a year, but if we can make it through this we can make it through anything as long as we keep letting God navigate the way!

So that's the past, I can't wait to fill you guys in on the future :D!