Just for Fun

The other night we had a great time going through some old photos. I continued down memory lane today, nice distraction from all that I should have been doing instead. I came across most of these pictures in old e-mails that we had sent to family over the years. I had not seen some of them since they were taken! I loved looking at the pictures of Lauren and Jake. It reminded me how quickly time goes by and how I never want to be so busy that I forget to ENJOY EVERY MINUTE! It's so worth it.

This was a picture taken of Lauren in the

NICU at University Hospital in Augusta. She

was just a few hours old as the ventilator

breathed each breath for her.

This picture was taken just a few days prior

to Lauren's release from the NICU. The outfit

she is wearing is a Premie size and it is too big!

She was only weighed about 4 lbs here.

This is a picture of Jake just minutes after

he was born. He was under the warmer and his

Aunt Kathy was right by his side.

Jake was 1 week old here. This was taken at
home in Greenville, South Carolina.

Oh, our sassy little girl! She was 3 years old.

I love my little man so much. He is such a cutie
here at 7 months. I remember this photo was
taken at Karen and Stephen's house. Aaron and
Stephen were in charge while Karen and I were
in St. Petersburg, FL for my granddaddy's funeral.
He passed away 19 years after my grandmother.
They were reunited in heaven February 14, 2005,
Valentine's Day.

Lauren playing after preschool in
our house in Greenville. She was 4
years old. This was taken in February
of 2006, just 4 months before
we moved to Nashville.

Taken at the same time as the picture
above. Jake was 19 months old. Almost
the exact age Gracie is now.

Saving the best for last...This picture was taken

sometime around 1983. This was my dad's airplane,

now known as our college education. He loved to

fly but he sold it a few years after this was taken.

I remember flying in it very well. In this picture is

my dad and mom, and my two sisters, Kathy and

Karen. You also see Miss Ellen and her daughter,

Elisabeth. Miss Ellen was my mom's closet friend

and she and her husband, Mr. Gene, became second

parents to us growing up. We are still close to this

day. MissEllen was there for each of our weddings,

helping us every step of the way. She has sewn

beautiful clothes for each of our children. The

Larsons will always be part of the White family.

Three Weeks and Counting...

The countdown is on and we have three weeks until our big move! Much to our amazement, we only had five showings of our house before we received an offer. We ended up selling the house in three weeks. It is amazing considering the current state of the market, but going into this, I always felt in my heart that it would be possible to sell it before we had to move because God was involved, and with Him, anything is possible. In the end, we felt that selling the house so quickly, against all the odds, was confirmation that moving our family to Montgomery was part of God's plan for us. It is a bittersweet time though, because while we are excited to begin this next chapter in our lives, we are having to leave behind a wonderful home and friends that we love. It is always hard to move and start a new life somewhere. Even though we have become accustomed to the process over the past 9 years, it is never easy. We are packing our calendar full these next few weeks and enjoying as much time with our friends as possible.

We are most excited about going on the Father's Day canoe trip with our Sunday School class June 13th. We did this last year and had a blast. Aaron loves any and all outdoor activities and he especially loves to get me out there whenever he can. Those who know me well will agree that I'm not exactly an outdoorsy kind of girl. Aaron still reminds me of the time I "happily" went camping with him when we were in college. I guess you could say I pulled the old "bait 'n switch" routine! What he probably doesn't remember about that night was how I sprayed myself and all of my surrounding areas continually, including my sleeping bag, with Off! I zipped up completely in my sleeping bag, covered every inch of my body from head to toe, and prayed to God that I didn't have any eight-legged visitors in the middle of the night. I can appreciate the beauty of nature, but I prefer to enjoy it at a distance, like from the inside a nicely air-conditioned car. Oh well, the things we do for the ones we love.

We always keep a calendar of our activities on the refrigerator. We have a dry-erase calendar that we change each month. There was something particularly surreal about writing the word JUNE at the top of the board this week. We have had the date of June 2009 in our minds for years and now here we are, we made it. When Aaron decided to definitely pursue Neonatology mid-way through his pediatric residency in Greenville, I couldn't help but let out a small groan at the thought of 3 more years of training. I knew Aaron was following God's will for his life but it was just hard at the time to feel up for it. Rather than being done in two years, we were suddenly on a whole new track. What had been just two years left, suddenly became five. I am so proud of Aaron for following God's leading though, even when it seemed like a daunting road ahead. I think back to what inspired this path and I remember our days spent in the NICU with Lauren. I remember feeling so helpless, sitting there, watching the ventilator breath for Lauren because she wasn't strong enough to breath on her own. I remember waking up throughout the night and calling the nurses on duty in the NICU to see how many espisodes of apnea (stops in her breathing) she had so far that night. It was heartbreaking. We were fortunate to have a Christian neonatologist in charge of Lauren's care. I will never forget the time when he prayed with us by Lauren's bedside. God was working tremendously in our lives at the time. Aaron was in his third year of medical school and the way the doctors surrendered to the superiority of God's healing hands to their own was so incredibly comforting. We knew that God was in control and to have a doctor acknowledge it as well was new to us. I've never felt the presence of the Lord as strongly as I did in that NICU. From what Lauren's doctor told us, that is an everyday occurrence. They said how difficult it would be to deny the presence of a higher power in what they do. What a true statement. Aaron witnesses God's miracles every day. As we look at our beautiful, healthy and vibrant 7-yr old daughter, we both firmly believe that the reason we walked through that difficult time was so that we would end up, right here.

God deserves all the glory. His hand has never lifted off our family. He guided us through everything...the long hours and days Aaron and I were forced to spend apart because of his schedule, the holidays we spent alone and away from our families and the exhausting toll working 36 hours straight would have on Aaron. We had a deep faith that no matter how desperate things got, God would always provide. There were many times when we didn't know how we were going to pay our bills, we'd go on a hunt through the whole house looking for spare change, in the hopes of collecting enough to buy some necessities at the grocery store. On more than one occasion, our cars would break down and we had no money available for repairs. One time, Aaron's driver side window in his Jeep fell down into the slats of the door and so there was no longer a barrier between him and the "elements," so to speak. We had NO money to fix it. Aaron drove around with it like that for almost a year! Not such a problem in the Spring and Fall, but summer was incredibly hot and winter, well, you can imagine. He'd bundle up like he was going to Alaska and then he'd get in his car and drive to work. It was awful! We even went as far as to use a garbage bag secured with duct tape to cover it, but that wouldn't last long. For us though, it was a choice between fixing a problem on a still operable car, or providing for the needs of our children. One thing always remained the same...God never left us. He always provided for our needs and we are incredibly grateful for the lessons we learned through those experiences. I have no doubt that we will look back on these past 9 years with a lot of laughter and a deep appreciation for the things in life that really matter. We are ready for God to bring on the next chapter in our life together and can't wait to see where he will take us. Words can't even describe our gratitude for all of the blessings He has given to us.

I guess the only thing left to say is...Montgomery, ready or not, here we come...