Lauren's Dance Recital

We had a very special event this weekend! We had the joy of watching our little ballerina in action. Lauren's dance recital was Friday night and she was absolutely precious. We were not allowed to video the performance because the dance studio was having it professionally recorded for sale. They were only allowing photographs to be taken without a flash. My digital camera gives a video option and so I was able to sneak by and get this video of Lauren's tap dance. Forgive the quality though, it's not the best but I was excited to just be able to get something to share with our family and friends. I hope you all enjoy seeing it and please feel free to leave a comment. I will share them all with Lauren.

Looking for answers...

I love having three children. They are the loves of my life. I even consider myself a fairly "seasoned" caretaker of young children at this point. I know how to handle their day to day care, their illnesses, temper tantrums, feedings, diaper duties, developmental milestones and the list goes on. No matter how well-equipped I may seem, the one thing I do not handle well is the "What if...?" question. Whenever something abnormal arises (i.e Jake's nystagmus) in one of my children, I immediately fear the worst. Thank goodness I have my very own baby doctor to run to with all of the fearful questions. The #1 rule Aaron has set in place for me is that I can't go self-diagnose on the Internet. I broke that rule this afternoon but I feel like I censored my search well. I didn't immediately jump to the worst diagnosis possible and call him crying. (I may have been guilty of that in the past, so you see, I'm getting better!) To my surprise Aaron actually enjoyed the research I had been doing and agreed that we are dealing with an issue that needs further investigation. Now to explain the problem that needs answers...

I look at Grace and see the most beautiful baby in the world. She has completely stolen my heart, just as her sister and brother did when they were babies. No abnormality Gracie has will ever change the beauty I see when I look at her. I know all mothers feel that way and so some times it is hard to open ourselves up to the thought that something may not be quite right. I have been amazed at the motherly instinct God sets in motion at the moment of conception though. I am very grateful for it because it has helped me be cognisant of an abnormality in Gracie's mouth from the day after her birth. Having had two children before, I was quick to realize that something was different. Gracie's tongue was protruding from her mouth all of the time. She did not seem to ever completely close her lips around her tongue. I talked to Aaron about it early on and he acknowledged that it was different and said we should just keep our eye on it. Gracie's pediatrician told me the same thing. Now, six months has passed and I am more aware of it than ever before. I have been told that Gracie will outgrow it and that while it does go along with several syndromes (Down Syndrome, BWS, etc.), Gracie has no other accompanying symptoms that would lead to a positive diagnosis of one of those illnesses. Now here comes that motherly intuition. I've been told to "wait and see" but I've had concern all along that it was going to cause problems when we try to introduce solid foods. Sure enough, we have reached the 6 month point and Gracie needs to be able to spoon feed solid foods at this age. She is having difficulty due to the the positioning of her tongue. We get a little bit in her but most of it winds up on her bib or on me. I called the doctor again and we have an appointment June 28th. I'm not leaving there until I have an answer or at least a plan in place. I can handle any problem with one of my children but I have to have a plan of action set in place. Once I know what it is and know how to handle it, I can return to a peaceful state of mind. I hear enough stories from Aaron's work in the NICU to be thankful that I'm just dealing with a tongue issue and not something life-threatening. His job really gives us perspective. While I would love for my children to never experience pain or discomfort of any kind, I know that is not possible. I can only vow to be their greatest advocate for their health and never fail to pray for God's intervention.

"A friend loves at all times...Proverbs 17:17"

Do you ever look back on your life and the friendships of your youth and find yourself reminiscing about old times and old friends? I know that I do. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven." I believe this applies to our friendships also. Some friendships endure the test of time and some are just there for a season. I look back and see many friends who were part of my life only for a short period of time but they played an integral role in my life and will always be part of who I am today. I will always look back on my years in high school and college with incredible fondness and have great appreciation for those that walked that road with me. My youth was filled with mistakes but ones I am grateful for because they taught me a great deal about love, friendship, and forgiveness. Those days feel like a lifetime ago but the people who were part of that time in my life have made a permanent imprint on my heart. During those years, we grew up together, we discovered new things about ourselves, we dreamed about our future and we struggled to overcome obstacles that stood in our way. Now, we have gone down our own paths. We are creating new lives with our significant others, making new friends, and building our own homes and families. Though there is great distance between many of us now, one thing is certain, nothing can ever erase what they have meant to me in my life. They have walked part of this journey with me and for that reason, I will carry a piece of them with me wherever I go.

A Family Weekend

Today we are leaving to go to Blairsville, Georgia to visit with Aaron's family for the weekend. We always enjoy our time with his family. We will celebrate his Dad's birthday, our niece's birthday and Father's Day on Sunday. Even with all of the activities, we always leave there feeling relaxed. His parents' home is very warm and inviting, nestled cozily in the North Georgia mountains. Lauren and Jake love to go "exploring" in the woods that surround their house and enjoy seeing the creek that their Daddy loved to go to when he was young. Lauren and Jake have learned that when they hear our car begin to ride on the gravel road, we are at Nana and Papa's house. Their excitement always erupts at that moment. I am especially looking forward to our trip today because I get to see my little nephew, Jaden. Jaden was born just one month before Gracie. He was born with the most precious head of black hair! He is so adorable! I have not seen him in a couple of months and at this age, they grow so fast!


The picture above was taken around Christmas time and so Jaden and Gracie have changed a lot since then. I'll post some more recent pictures after our weekend.

Hip Hip Hooray!

Aside from the joy of seeing each of my three children for the first time, I have never been more joyful than I am right now! Okay, so that is a bit of an exaggeration but all of you moms out there will understand my blissful state when I say that...JAKE IS FINALLY POTTY-TRAINED!! Hallelujah! Praise Jesus! This has been the most frustrating process to date. Lauren was an absolute breeze to potty-train, so naturally I never thought I would have a hard time training Jake. Wow, was I ever wrong!! I just had to keep telling myself not to worry and that it wasn't like he would walk across the stage at his high school graduation in a Huggies Pull-up. He would eventually get the hang of it. Though my patience was wearing thin, I was determined more than ever. There was no way I wanted to continue to buy diapers for 2 out of my 3 children. My plan was that when we returned from Disney World, the "Diaper Fairy" was coming to our house one night and would take all of Jake's Pull-Ups away. It sounds so silly, but to a 3 year old, it made perfect sense. We had a couple of accidents but now he really seems to be excited that he knows how to go potty like a big boy. I've cheered, jumped up and down and hugged him every time he makes it to the potty. He is so proud of himself and I am truly joyful now that I only have 1 in diapers! This is truly a "Hallelujah Moment" for me!

The Tooth Fairy

We had a big event at the Millage house yesterday afternoon. Lauren lost her very first tooth! She has been working on it for a while now, wiggling it back and forth. It would always give me that "fingernails on a chalkboard" feeling every time I would see her wiggling this very loose tooth. So you can imagine my surprise when I was the one who ended up pulling it for her. Perhaps it was out of sheer determination not to have to watch that little tooth "hang on" any longer. With a quick little pull, out it came. Lauren was so excited. Most of her friends in Kindergarten had already begun to lose teeth during the year and Lauren had been waiting patiently. She would come to us at least one a week and have us check for a possible "loose tooth" but we never found any...until now! Lauren very happily put her little tooth under her pillow for the Tooth Fairy. Late last night, when we were all sound asleep, the Tooth Fairy left Lauren $5.00 in exchange for her tiny tooth.

Disney World

We've just returned this past week from an incredible vacation at Disney World. We had a fabulous time and loved every minute of the seven days we were there! We had our own little caravan journeying down to Orlando with us. Both of my sisters came with their families and we met up with Grammy and Granddaddy (a.k.a my Mom and Dad) at our Disney World Resort. Just some quick math, so that you have the full picture of what we were dealing with...there were 7 adults and 7 CHILDREN! The ages of the children are 6 months, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Imagine navigating a group of 14 through all four Disney World parks. It was crazy but definitely worth every exhausting moment. I think what I loved most of all was that there was absolutely nothing for us to do other than enjoy being with our children. It was so great to see their eyes light up when they would spot their favorite ride or Disney character. Lauren was big enough to even enjoy some of the bigger attractions. Her new favorite ride is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I thought that she might be a little scared of a bigger rollercoaster but little did I know! As we heard the click, click, click sound of the rollercoaster making it's way up the hill, I looked over at Lauren and she has her hands up in the air! Not only was she not scared, she was READY for it! Aaron and I were quite excited. As two people who love all rollercoasters, it was a proud moment for us!


We stayed at the Boardwalk Inn Resort and it was beautiful. It was always refreshing to come back to the room after a LONG day in the park. The swimming pool was enormous and Aaron took Lauren and Jake to swim every evening. There were waterfalls and slides, basically any child's dream. Gracie even did great each day. My dad found a little fan that we attached to her stroller and that was a lifesaver. It helped keep her cool on the really hot days. I also just made several trips to the Baby Care Center in each park where I could rock her, feed her and give her a chance to really cool down. All in all, everyone was comfortable and happy and we just loved spending that time together.



I feel so blessed to have even had the opportunity to take such a wonderful vacation. Disney World is definitely not cheap and is certainly not something Aaron and I could afford to do right now. This actually came as a gift from my Dad. Last November, at the celebration of his 15th Anniversary working for the Georgia Baptist Convention, the Executive Committee asked him what he would want as his gift of appreciation. Without hesitation, he said he wanted to take his family and all of his grandchildren to Disney World. For those of you who know my Dad, this would not come as a surprise at all. Dad is a devoted family man and always has been. Needless to say, Aaron and I were incredibly grateful that we were able to take Lauren, Jake and Gracie on such a special vacation.



I will post more photos of our trip soon. We took almost 200 pictures! I just haven't had a chance to go through them all yet.