Seeking God First

I didn't know how else to begin my blog today but the title seems fitting for the rollercoaster we have been on this week. Last Monday we left for Montgomery, Alabama so that Aaron could have a second interview with a neonatology group he has been communicating with for the past several months. The purpose of this visit was to introduce his family to the the other physicians and their families, visit schools, and view possible housing options for our family. Aaron really enjoyed his last visit to Montgomery and was anxious to get my input this time. Unfortunately, my participation in this "get-to-know-you" visit was brought to a screeching halt our first morning there. We had a full day planned with visits to three schools, an afternoon with the real estate agent and a party with the other physician families that night. When I woke up I had the most horrible nausea and body aches. The kind of aching where you feel like you can't even lie comfortably in the bed. I was MISERABLE! Needless to say, I was in for the most wretched stomach virus. (I must thank my precious baby Gracie for this little treat of a day. She had been sick over the weekend and one of the many joys of caring for a sick child is knowing that you are next in line.) I was barely able to lift up my head, much less go see the sites of Montgomery. Everyone was so wonderfully understanding. When Aaron was tied up with the other members of the group, their wives would take turns caring for Lauren, Jake and Gracie. I was so thankful for their kindness and generosity. Thankfully after 24 hours I was much improved. We were able to spend Wednesday and part of Thursday getting to know the area. I was already familiar with Montgomery and have always had a fondness for the community. My grandfather was pastor of FBC Montgomery for 23 years and his legacy remains today, which makes me so proud. He loved Montgomery and dedicated most of his ministry to serving God there. My Dad spent most of his childhood and youth in Montgomery, was associate pastor of FBC for a few years after seminary, and my oldest sister Kathy was born at the same hospital where Aaron would be working. I grew up coming to visit my grandparents in Montgomery and have many memories of it being a great southern town. Thankfully, these memories helped guide me a little when Aaron returned from his first interview having loved it. He was blown away by the group's openness about wanting to put faith and family first. Each member of the group shared how their faith guides them in their daily job. How they will not shy away from praying with a baby's family or gathering together to pray over a critically ill patient. This is exactly the kind of doctors that we encountered while Lauren was in the NICU and it was through that experience that Aaron decided to pursue neonatology in the first place. To be able to see God's hand come full-circle like that is humbling. Aaron was officially given a written offer and 30 days to respond. Here comes the hard part...

I'm sure you can all relate, no scenario is perfect. A move to Montgomery would not be without some sacrifice and so we have been spending a great deal of time discussing our options. This blog could go on forever as I explain each option individually but instead, I'll just give you the abbreviated version. Aaron has interviewed in multiple places over the last three months and it has come down to three choices. He has been given opportunities to either stay here in Nashville, go to the south side of Atlanta, or Montgomery. While we are so thankful for the many choices, it is an extremely difficult decision to make. There are ties pulling our hearts in every direction. There are pros and cons to each job and navigating through them all has been emotionally draining for us both. Another difficult aspect of this decision is knowing its permanency. Now of course, if there is a major problem, we would move again but in all actuality, this move will be a permanent one. We have moved around a lot for Aaron's training, but we are coming to a time in our lives, and in the lives of our children, where we would all benefit from setting down roots. The only way we feel like we can make this decision is by giving it solely away to God. We have no way of knowing what the future holds but we know that God's vantage point is far greater than ours. We are praying daily for guidance, daily for peace and daily for God's hand to show us the way. Neither of us are sleeping well, which is catching up to us. We are heavy-hearted by the weight of having to possibly step outside our comfort zones. This decision is definitely not an easy one. I was sharing all of this with a friend recently and she said something that spoke deeply to me. I told her that I wanted God to close the doors that were not meant to be open. She reminded me that God may not close the doors but rather wants to know that we are willing to step out in obedience to follow Him. To show Him that we love Him and TRUST Him enough to follow Him wherever He leads. That is exactly what I needed to hear and it remains my prayer today. Instead of praying for Him to close the wrong door, I'm praying for Him to lead us to the RIGHT door. For years I have always said that I wanted to end up living in Atlanta, near my family, but what I'm discovering is that God may have other plans. We're trusting Him completely, seeking His will above all others, forgoing the opinions of those around us and focusing on His voice exclusively. Wherever He leads, We'll go.

Picture Tag

My sweet friend, Tiffany, tagged me with the following...

a.) choose the 4th picture folder on your computer

b.) choose the 4th picture

c.) explain the picture

d.) tag 4 people

So here goes...

This picture of Jake was taken in the playroom at our house in Greenville, South Carolina. He loved those Shrek ears! My fourth folder is titled Holidays 2005 and so Jake would have been around 18 months old when this was taken. What a cutie! They grow way too fast!

The Christmas Card

One of my favorite things to do each Christmas is to mail out holiday cards to our friends and family. This is one of the treasured ways we can stay in touch with friends and family that are so dear to us. For this reason, I love it. On the other hand though, it is a tradition that takes a great deal of patience to complete. This is why our Christmas card will always arrive the week of Christmas. I spend the entire month of December working up the energy to complete the task. Needless to say, getting a picture when they are all looking and smiling at the camera at the same time is an extreme challenge. I thought I would share some of the "bloopers" from our little photo session in front of the Christmas tree.

After much laughter (and some groaning), we did finally find a picture where they are all three looking at the camera. It was a proud moment! Now when our card arrives in your mailbox, you will know the real back story on that perfectly posed picture.

Thankfulness

I just couldn't resist sharing this picture taken on Aaron's birthday...

I am so thankful for my husband. On Tuesday, we celebrated our 8th anniversary and his birthday was the following day. I was actually sick most of this week and was reminded, yet again, that I have an awesome husband. God gave me the greatest blessing in Aaron. He is so loving, kind and caring towards me when I am not feeling my best. You would think that considering all the health issues I have struggled with this past year, he would not be quite so understanding, but he is amazing. He is my rock and I can honestly say that I love him more today than the day we married 8 years ago. God has really grown us both up together in Him and I can't wait to see where we go from here. We have already learned so much about love, compassion and grace in our marriage and I have no doubt that God has so much more to show us. All I know is that I couldn't have asked for a better partner for the journey ahead.

Let It Snow!

Last Thursday night we had a great surprise here...SNOW! Aaron was on call at the hospital but Lauren, Jake, Gracie and I enjoyed every minute of it. Lauren and Jake couldn't wait to get out there and start playing. Gracie and I watched from indoors and I would hold my camera out the door just long enough to get a quick picture. It was bitterly cold for this southern girl! The kids had a little snow to play with Friday morning with Aaron but the biggest opportunity for snowman building was Thursday night. Here are a few pictures of our winter wonderland...

Lauren is head snowman

builder!

I loved how it covered
the branches!

In celebration of Lauren's school being cancelled on Friday,

we ended the evening with some hot chocolate and made

some brownies for Daddy. It certainly feels like

Christmas!

'Tis the Season to be Busy!

I am one of those people who looks forward to Christmas all year long. I absolutely love the holidays. I love to decorate the house with Christmas decorations, watch my favorite Christmas movies, sing carols, drink hot apple cider on the couch with only the lights of the Christmas tree glowing, bake goodies, and of course, I love all that SHOPPING! We all know it wouldn't be Christmas if we weren't rushing around, over-scheduled and crazed. So the Millage family got off to a good start this week. With so many things going on and not a lot of extra time to blog, I thought I'd just combine several events into one super blog!


Deck the Halls!

Aaron and Jake picked out a beautiful Christmas tree and we all had a great time decorating the house for the holidays. Lauren is just like her Mommy and loves this tradition the best!

Gracie loves looking at the glowing tree! Thankfully, she hasn't been too interested in taking off the ornaments.

This is one of my favorite decorations in the whole house. It is a tree decorated with ornaments made by Lauren and Jake over the years. It won't be long before Gracie begins adding her handmade ornaments also.

Another favorite of mine is the garland. I think part of my nostalgia for Christmas garland comes from my own childhood. It was my favorite decoration that Dad would put up each year. I used to hate when the holidays ended and it had to come down. The stairs suddenly seemed so bare. Lauren loves to hang the stockings. She chooses a stocking holder for each family member and then delicately hangs each stocking. Gracie just had a a great time with all the new sights in the house. She laughed and smiled. It was precious. I can have had the hardest day, be absolutely exhausted and that smile of hers can light up the room and change my whole mood.

Saturday we celebrated Lauren's 7th birthday with her friends. Her birthday is still a couple of weeks away but I always try to have her party the first weekend in December, before all of the hectic schedules really get underway. We had a great time this year. She had her party at Wizard Animation Studios. I had never heard of this before and am so glad that I found this place. It was an amazing party. Each child could "star" in their own movie. They could pick the theme and then would go into a recording booth, with blue screens surrounding them. The "director" would give them short lines to repeat and simple actions. They were dressed in costume, which was adorable. There was usually three children per movie. We had a large group and so five movies were made. At the end of the party, each child took home a copy of their movie. All of the girls chose the Alice in Wonderland themed movie and my nephews, Ryan and Ben, chose a dinosaur movie. While a group was filming the movie, everyone else was in the party room where each of the 4 walls had a large movie screen and they could play Mario Kart Wii, other video games, sing Karaoke, etc. It was a big hit and we all had a great time. Here is the movie that Lauren made. It is so funny!

I loved having both of my parents and my sister Karen and her two boys, Ryan and Ben in from Atlanta. Lauren loved having them at her party. It was a fun day!





And last but not least...We were so proud of Lauren on Sunday evening. The children's ministry at our church put on "The Mystery of the Manger" and it was so cute. They all did a great job but of course, my eyes (and camera) was glued on our baby girl. She worked so hard learning all of her music months ahead of time. We spent a lot of time listening to her CD in the car and so we ALL knew the music by the time this program came around. Lauren knew all of the motions and my heart was just melting the whole time.

Aaron and I were so proud of her and I can't even describe the feeling that it gave me to watch our daughter sing about the love of Jesus. That really is what the Christmas season is all about. At Christmas, we all do so much rushing around. We go to different parties, or we run from store to store finding that perfect gift or the latest toy, and it is too easy to forget why we celebrate this time of year. Aaron and I don't ever want to be so busy that we forget to teach our children the true reason for the season.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life," John 3:16 NIV

Thanksgiving Day Video

Here is some video taken on Thanksgiving Day. We were in Birmingham visiting Aaron's mom, Sam, and Dan. We had a great time and Lauren, Jake and Gracie enjoyed some special time with Grandma and Paw-Paw. Sam had a cake for Gracie and to our amazement, Gracie didn't like birthday cake. She didn't like the one we tried to give her at her birthday party on Saturday either. I'm sure that will change in a few years! It was a really nice visit and I pieced together a few clips from our day together.