Family Photos

So with Levi turning 1 this fall, I figured it was about time we actually had some family photos done with him in them! (Seriously, if you ever come over to our house you would think we were a single couple because we have NO family photos of the 3 of us.)

 We had a friend of mine, Jennifer Corcoran, take our photos at the Botanical Gardens in Columbus since it is right down the street from our house. Jennifer is an "up and coming" photographer who is just getting into the photography business.

However, you would NEVER know that she is just starting out because the photos she took of us (on the most humid morning this year with a teething, angry, uncooperative one year old) are INCREDIBLE. 

Seriously, I love them all. Jennifer is incredibly talented and had some really cute ideas for photos that turned out so great. I really could not say enough good things about her and her sweet hubby Blake (who spent the whole morning making silly faces so that Levi would not be sulking in every photo.) 

For the record: He picked up the piece of straw ALL by himself and started chewing on it. You would think we don't feed him. 

Long story short, we love our photos Jennifer! Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into giving us such a great gift through these captured moments. 

Months 9-12

How is this little thing a 1 year old?! I know every parent says that... but really, where did the time go? I know I have said this in previous posts about Levi, but THIS is now my new favorite age. When I look back on prayers or posts from "the dark ages" (aka the Colic days), I am truly amazed that my happy, flirty, giggly, little man came out of such an unhappy newborn! (So if anyone out there is reading this and struggling with a Colicky baby, do not lose heart! You're baby will not always be like this)

In honor of his first birthday, we had a very small, laid-back "tailgate" party at my parent's house with family and a few friends. I couldn't have asked for a better day! We ate, opened presents, watched football, and Levi has his first taste of cake (banana bread with cool whip). Although he didn't like the cake too much, he loved opening presents and playing with his new toys with his cousins. It was almost surreal watching him play all day (ummm when did you become a little boy?!)

 Levi has grown so much in the last few months. He has become extremely social and he absolutely loves being around people. Some days, if he is really grumpy,we will go walk around Target because he immediately perks up being in public. (And, because I am the selfless, sacrificial type, I'll oblige HIS need to go to Target. Okay fine, my need) Levi loves bath time and has officially graduated up to the regular bath tub. He loves playing with his bath toys and splashing anyone within a 5 foot radius. He also continues to really love music. He loves listening to music, "playing" music on his xylophone, and having people sing to him. Anything that lights up and plays music can entertain him for hours!

Of all of his favorite things, there is nothing that Levi loves more than Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse pictures, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, his Mickey toy, it doesn't matter to him at all. Anything and everything Mickey Mouse makes him smile. On a related note, if anyone needs to know ANYTHING AT ALL about Mickey Mouse Clubhouse let me know! Or, maybe a Mouseketool could help you. (Seriously, why isn't this a category at Loco's Trivia?)

Sarah and Taylor's wedding

On a more serious note, the biggest change for Levi recently has been his enrollment in "school." This past August, Levi started at Central Christian Preschool and is there 4 days a week since Mitch and I are both working full time now. In addition to going to CCC Preschool, Levi spends a couple hours a day with my mom until Mitch gets off work. This has been a HUGE adjustment for Levi. However, he has handled it like a champ (minus those first two weeks of daycare when he would scream bloody murder the whole time he was there). Levi loves going to school, his teacher Mrs. Roxanne, and, wouldn't you know it, his classroom's xylophone (do they offer xylophone scholarships to Juilliard?) Not only does Levi enjoy school, but it has been a huge help for his developmental delays and we are hoping that it will help diminish them all together!

First day in our new house!

 At his one year check up, Levi weighed in at 20 lbs 8 ounces (10th percentile in weight) and was 29 inches long (50th percentile in height). He is on the small side but he is completely healthy! He also has 8-10 teeth and hasn't met a food he doesn't like!  (I am not 100% on the exact number of teeth he has because I fear for the safety of my fingers!)

First haircut

When the nurse told me his percentiles, David (from the Old Testament) immediately popped into my mind; young and small but chosen by God and made greater than a giant. I can only hope and pray that the same will be true of Levi... not to be great, but rather to be chosen by the Great One himself.

Months 6-9

How is it time for another Levi update already?! My entire pregnancy I thought time had literally stopped it was going by SO SLOW. I would wake up some mornings and get really excited because surely, I was several weeks closer to meeting my sweet little boy (and lets be honest, several weeks closer to not feeling like a beached whale). But alas, I would still be WEEKS away. However, now that Levi is here, I feel like I look down at him and lose entire chunks of time. How is he only 3 months away from being a year old?!

Months 6-9 have been EXTREMELY good to us. For the first 6 months of his life, we genuinely believed that Levi hated sleep. He would only nap for 30 minutes at a time (about twice a day) and then he only slept an average of 6 hours at night (with many wake ups). Needless to say, we were zombies for first half of his life, which could explain how he grew up so much right under my nose! However, right around 7 months, Levi started napping longer and waking up less at night. We had tried letting him cry-it-out when he was around 5 months old with no success, but suddenly at 6 and a half months he latched on to sleep training almost immediately. (And by sleep training I really mean, Mitch and I had the stomach flu and were to sick to stay up trying to get Levi back to sleep.) After that one night of the awful stomach flu/impromptu sleep training, Levi has slept from 7:00-8:30 with no interruptions. Y'all, it is like manna from Heaven. So to all of you parents out their wondering "Will this EVER end?!", yes it will! Turns out Levi just wasn't quiet ready for sleep training the first time.

Another reason Levi sleeping through the night is a miracle, is because he is teething ALL.OF. THE.TIME. Luckily, he handles it pretty well and just drools like Beethoven the St. Bernhard (particularly that scene where he shakes his head and slobber goes everywhere.) Currently, Levi is cutting his 6th tooth and particularly likes to eat paper to soothe his pain. Mitch can now truthfully tell his seminary professor that it wasn't his dog, but, in fact, his son who ate his homework.

Saying Goodbye to our first house

Since he now has plenty of teeth to chew on things, we have started Levi on table food and needless to say, he is a 'foodie' in the making. How did we know he was ready? Well, when you are holding onto your son and have a piece of pizza in the other hand and he suddenly leans down and takes a huge bite out of it on his own, you kinda figure he must be ready. So, his first real food was pizza. No parent of the year award there! (Which accidentally banging his head on a door frame, letting the dog lick him in the mouth, realizing too late that he ate a piece of paper/dog hair/food off the floor, and forgetting to put bug spray on him counted me out for that award a looooooong time ago anyways- but hey, he's still alive and well and i get a good size piece of humble pie with about every meal)

Although he is a little bit behind, Levi has started army crawling a bit! He has yet to get up on his hands and knees but that doesn't stop him from sliding along the floor at a pretty fast pace (which in my defense, is how he gets the paper in the first place.) Although he cannot keep up with them by any means, he loves watching and following his cousins around the living room. Bentley and Caleb talk to Levi as they play and bring him toys for him to play with and it's just about the sweetest thing ever. They also try to throw balls at him for "Baby Levi to catch" and well, he has yet to catch one with his hands but the day is coming!

All of the grandsons

Just last month, we took Levi to the beach for the first time and he LOVED it! He loved the pool, he loved the ocean, and he loved the sand so much he ate a good bit of it. I have never seen a baby his age love the water so much. He may not look anything like me, but he loves the beach just as much as I do, and I am so thankful. I am also extremely thankful that he has my skin tone because he didn't burn at all (which is saying a lot since sunscreening a wiggling baby should be considered a sport). Needless to say, it was a great first family vacation.

Parenting is slowly becoming more normal to us and Levi is becoming more enjoyable, funny, and expressive every day. I will be the first to admit that even after having Levi I still do not really like babies. GASP. I know that is about the worst mom thing to say but it's the truth. I love my baby, but I do not miss his little baby days, and thats okay. I love Levi so much it hurts but that doesn't mean that I will love every minute of raising him. Thankfully, I have a God that will love Levi through me on the days where I am bone dry. Thankfully, I have a God who will love Levi through me on the days that I fail over and over and over again. Thankfully, I have a God who knows that I cannot truly LOVE (agape) Levi without Him, and he is okay with that, because His power is made perfect in my {many, many} weaknesses.  Praise the Lord.

Summer Projects: Radical Summers to Radical Lives

Finals are in full swing, graduation is less than a week away, and summer is waiting patiently right around the corner. Therefore, thousands of students across the United States (and from Cru international Cru movements) are preparing to head off all across the world on Cru summer projects. Summer projects are responsible for changing the lives of hundreds of students every year and they have played such an integral part of my spiritual growth as a staffer. However, I feel like so many people do not fully get to see the effects that summer projects have on the lives of college students. Summer projects are life changers; not month-after-trip-spiritual-high life changers, but eternal, future-altering, radical life changers.

If you have ever found yourself asking "Why should I support a student going on summer project?" "Do summer projects really have an effect on World missions?", "Is this going to be worth my money?", or even "What in the world is this summer project she speaks of?!" then this post is for you.

I could literally write pages and pages on this blog of students who have had their lives radically changed through a summer project. However, I am just going to use my personal experience from one single summer project to display how dramatically the Lord will work in a students life while on summer project.

If you have followed my blog for a while, you will recall when Mitch and I staffed a summer project to Durban, South Africa in July-August 2012. We had 15 students, 10 girls and 5 guys, from all over the southeast. Compared to most summer projects this was a small team. Most of the students were upcoming Juniors and Seniors and have graduated sometime in the past year.

Here is the team (staffers included)

So where are they now?

Paula was one of our few up-coming seniors on the trip that summer. After spending the summer in South Africa, she felt a huge calling to pursue overseas missions. After many months of prayer and consideration, Paula trusted the Lord's calling and applied for an international STINT (1-2 year international mission) in East Asia- a country she had never even visited! She was able to visit for a week in March 2013 and she returned in August 2013 to minister to college students who have literally never heard of Jesus. Today, Paula is currently living and serving in East Asia. 

                                                                                                              

Paige was another up-coming senior on our Durban team who also had a huge heart for overseas missions. After finishing her last year of school in May 2013, Paige came on staff with Amigos for Christ, a non-profit organization that uses social and community development to further the kingdom of God in Nicaragua (http://amigosforchrist.org/ ). She is currently serving and living in Chinandega, Nicaragua. 

Courtney was an upcoming Junior from the Durban trip. After completing her Junior year, She decided again to dive back into international missions and travelled to India on another Cru summer project. 2 years later, with 2 summer projects under her belt, Courtney continues to live out her passion for missions by joining the World Race (http://www.theworldrace.org/ ). Beginning in September, Courtney will travel to 11 countries in 11 months to serve "the least of these." (To follow Courtney on her journey of sharing Christ with the World visit her blog http://courtneyhuffman.theworldrace.org/) 

Kris was also and upcoming Junior from the Durban trip who served alongside of Courtney in India the following summer. After finishing school and serving on 2 international Cru summer projects, Kris has decided to pursue her calling to bring the gospel to college students in the US (who are in need of a savior just as much!) After graduation, Kris began an internship with Cru and will be serving at Georiga Southern University this coming fall. 

Maddy was another upcoming Junior on our Durban team and has played a large role in her Cru movement at the University of Georgia. After her summer in Durban, Maddy has spent a lot of her time serving alongside of the Cru staff team and bringing the gospel to college students in Athens, Georgia. She has also travelled to Haiti on a missions trip. Following graduation, Maddy will also begin an internship with Cru and will be serving at UGA this fall. 

Jacob L. was a Junior at UCF when he joined our Durban summer project team. After our summer in Africa, he continued to be involved with Cru at UCF and during his senior year, decided to continue following his heart for international students and applied and was accepted to be a part of one of the 2014 Stint teams to East Asia. He will move to East Asia in August to live/study alongside of college students there and share the love of Christ with them. 

Nick was also one of our Junior UCF guys on the Durban team. He was and has since remained very involved with the Cru movement at Central Florida and has decided to follow his passion for sharing the gospel with college students. After graduating from UCF in May, Nick will join Cru as a full-time staffer. 

7 out of our 15 students are committing to full-time missions. 7 OUT OF 15 people! That's half of our team (my mathematician husband would point out that it is not exactly half) And that does not include the ones** that have entered the job force and are in ministry sharing the gospel with their coworkers, bosses, patients, students, and clients (which is JUST as challenging, needed and no-less righteous.) 

So are summer projects worth it? Are summer projects eternally life-changing? Does your money, prayers and encouragement towards a student's summer project mean anything?

You tell me. Because it seems to me that is can mean everything. 

If you are able, financially support a student going on a summer project. If you are not able financially, refer them to people that are and PRAY fervently for their mission. 

And if you are a student. GO. 

GO because the time is now. GO because the need is great. GO because there are people everywhere who do not know Jesus. And most importantly, GO with an open heart and open hands because God absolutely will use it to radically change your life. 

**These are just the students that I know of their after graduation plans. As I hear from others from the trip about what they are doing after graduation I will be updating this blog to include them!

Months 3-6

Once again, time has FLOWN by. People have always said that kids grow up too fast and I never really understood until now. Not to mention, he looks more and more like his daddy every day (if that's even possible.) One day I look down and Levi is the tiny little thing we brought home from the hospital and the next thing I know he is sitting up, playing with his toys, and gnawing on EVERYTHING with his three little teeth (more like 2 and a forth).

That's right, teeth. About a week before he turned 5 months, Levi suddenly sprouted his two bottom teeth. In. the. same. day. For anyone who crossed me during that day and the couple leading up to it I deeply apologize for my frazzled, sleep-deprived, un-showered self. I also apologize for my angry baby. You know how in Harry Potter, when Voldermort gets near, Harry's scar is more noticeable and it hurts? When Levi gets angry, his "angel kisses" on his forehead turn bright red. And then he screams about a minute later. Needless to say, on the day of the 2 teeth he looked like Harry Potter all day. And with his first two teeth coming in at the same time, who can blame him?

Months 3-6 have come with so many new things! We had Levi dedicated at church, we FINALLY got Levi to drink out of a bottle, and he has started loving his exersaucer. Along with new teeth, Levi has started and LOVES vegetables. From the very first time we tried baby food, he has gobbled it up. Carrots, squash, green beans, avocado, you blend it, he'll eat it. Hopefully this means he has inherited my love for vegetables (a mom can dream, right?). And, thanks to our amazing and generous church in Decatur, First Bible Church, I am now able to make our own baby food too! The church graciously gave us a Baby Bullet at this years Missions Conference. FBC you are way too good to us.

The same week that Levi got his two first teeth, he also started rolling over back to stomach, stomach to back, and sitting up. Thus, we also had to start unswaddling him cold turkey (did I mention we were monsters that week?) Thankfully, he has figured out that he loves sleeping on his stomach so the swaddling issue was not that big of a fight. Lately, he sleeps on his stomach with his bum in the air. It's reaaaaaally cute. (At least for now, at 18 it might not be as cute)




Finally, over the last month, we have made some positive strides in Levi's sleeping. Up until a couple of weeks ago, Levi was waking up 2-3 a night, and only taking 30 minute naps during the day, and that was WITH sleep training and letting him cry-it-out. Needless to say, we were walking zombies with short fuses (want to see your sin? Live with a baby that never sleeps. It is sad to see how selfish and angry I become when someone is interrupting my sleep) Thankfully, God graciously has allowed Levi to start sleeping through the night and it has been such an undeserved gift! Not to mention, he is a much happier baby when he is well rested- thus I am a much happier (and nicer) mama.

Of all of these things, the biggest thing that has happened in the past couple months was I left Levi for the first time. FOR ELEVEN DAYS. Go big or go home, right? But seriously, before my trip to East Asia I had only been away from Levi for no more than 2 hours. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, but I also realized it was mainly hard because Levi had become an idol to me and I didn't trust God to protect him. So with a heavy dose of the reality of my sinful state, I packed my bags and boarded that plane with my breast pump in tow. And wouldn't you know it, the moment I got over there I accidentally fried my breast pump and had to lay down yet another idol and (painfully) quit nursing Levi. Eleven days went by and Levi survived, I survived, and thankfully Mitch and my mom survived as well. Not only did I survive, but that trip was one of the best things that has happened to my perspective as a mother.

Each month that Levi grows just gets better and better. I have always been the first to admit that I am not much of a baby person, so now that Levi is getting older and taking on more of a personality Mitch and I both are enjoying being parents more and more. Thankful to have had 6 months with our little man and I pray we get to enjoy so many more!

The Next Steps

With another semester slowly heading towards a close, Mitch and I have some bittersweet news to share with everyone! From Mitch:

With all of the excitement and anticipation this time of year brings, Amy and I wanted to share a bit of exciting news about our ministry as well.  As many of you well know, one of my (Mitch) major passions as a Christian is to teach truth to fellow Christians regarding their faith and why we can be confident it is true and coherent.  That has continued to be the case during my last five years on staff with Campus Crusade.  One of my favorite things we do on campus as a ministry is give a weekly talk discussing the deeper things of God and his Gospel.  There are so many ideas floating around a college campus, and as Ravi Zacharias likes to say, “Ideas have the greatest of consequences… either for good or for ill.”  The battle for the mind and true ideas is fierce and never ending, especially on ever “progressive” college campus. 

A few months ago, with this in mind, Amy and I had a discussion as to where we would like to see ourselves and our family in 5 or 10 years.  Where was God leading us?  What giftings and passions had he given us that would lead us?  It is normal for a cru staffer to be asked to take on team leadership role after their 5^th year.  Is that something we felt led to do, or perhaps something else?  Amy asked, “If you could do anything, what would you want to do?”  Without thinking much about it, I responded, “I would love to go to seminary to teach theology and apologetics to Christian students so that they can be a light in an ever hostile world.”  We hadn’t really even considered the possibility before, but now that it had been said (and with the risk of over-spiritualizing a situation, said by the influence of the Holy Spirit), it seemed to make great sense.  I love teaching the material, but most of the time I feel woefully inadequate in my knowledge. 

Since then, Amy and I have prayed about it and have received great confidence in where our next steps will place us as a family.  We will continue to be in ministry, but it will look very different.  I have applied to and have been accepted at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary based out of Louisville.  They offer one of the best degrees in Christian Apologetics and worldview studies, and they have extension centers throughout the country for easy access to education.  While we will still be working towards careers in ministry, we will regretfully be leaving full time staff with Campus Crusade in September.  We have truly loved our time as full time missionaries, but our time of dedicating our lives to spreading the Gospel of Christ will never be over this side of Heaven.  All of your support has been and continues to be a great and eternal blessing!                                       - Mitch

  This has been such a hard decision for our family! We absolutely love the relationships we have made in Mississippi and through Cru (Campus Crusade). However, we are very confident in God's calling and we are also excited for this new step for our family. The degree program that Mitch is enrolled in has the possibility to do a good portion of his school work online. Because of this, Mitch and I had the freedom to job search in several different places and pray for God to open doors wherever he desired us. After applying and searching in several different cities, we have had two open doors in Columbus, Georgia. I (Amy) will be accepting a job to work alongside my dad at his business; something that I did in high school and I am so excited about getting to do again! Mitch has accepted a job offer at Calvary Christian High School to teach mathematics. The way that both of these doors opened up have left us extremely confident that Columbus is where the Lord is calling us to go as we work our way through seminary. We plan on moving sometime this summer before the school season starts this fall. 

We are so thankful for the many of you who have prayed for us and supported us during our time with Cru and we covet your prayers as we begin a new branch of ministry in Columbus! 

#unfiltered

Masks: we are all living behind one. Thanks to social media, our masks have gotten bolder, more beautiful, and most importantly, more deceiving. Working with college students (mostly women), this issue comes up every. single. day. We walk around daily struggling with relationships, jobs, weight, appearances, parenthood, money, and the list goes on. But we don't show other people that! Instead, we hop on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook and post pictures of ourselves in the mirrors at the gym, or our child laughing (for the 1 second that he laughed that day), or of the flowers our sweet {insert significant other here} gave us for no reason at all! Or we tweet about how much weight we have lost, or how in love we are, or how perfect our lives are, etc. etc.

And by we, I mean me; my mask is just as big and just as deceiving and that is sad. It is sad because I talk to women daily who are struggling with the same things I do but they think they are alone. It is sad because 90% of the time I think that I am the worst person/mom/wife/Christian/woman ever because I think I am the only one who doesn't do things perfectly. We suffer because we are not honest about our lives. We struggle because we are not honest about our sin. We struggle because we would rather hide behind a picture-perfect mirage than be honest about the harder parts of our lives. We suffer because we only show one-side and so does everyone else. We suffer because that is NOT what Christ has called us to.

We (I) are called to be humble. We (I) are called to be lowly. We (I) are called to be less so that He can be more. We (I) are called to be transparent. We (I) exist solely to bring glory to God and to live in such a way that others can come to know the Lord and the redemptive work He accomplished through Christ's death on the cross. If you were to look on Instagram or Facebook, there is no room for that. If you were to look at MY Instagram and Facebook, there is no room for that. We (I) are too busy painting the picture of people & relationships who do not need to be redeemed because they are already perfect! I am too busy bringing glory to myself. I am too busy making people and their opinions of me bigger than God. And I am too busy helping others do the same.

I post pictures on Instagram and Facebook because I want to show off my family. I post pictures of myself because I want people to tell me I'm pretty, or that I look great, or that they can't believe I've lost the baby weight! When in fact, I have not lost the baby weight nor has it been easy too; adding more self-image struggles onto years of weight and body-image issues. I post pictures or statuses about how good of a baby Levi is and how much I love being a mother. I do love Levi and I do love being a mother but there have been MANY times over the past 4 months that I have said (out loud) that I hated being a mother and that it was too hard (This coming from the woman who pleaded with God for a baby for well over a year). I post about things that make me seem like a good mother. When in fact, I have yelled at my baby in the middle of the night more. than. once. And how I wish it stopped there.

I have posted about how wonderful my husband and marriage is and how great we get along. I do love my husband, more than I ever thought I could love someone, but marriage is HARD. I am a sinner and he is a sinner and we struggle. We fight. We say things that we can never take back. And at the end of the day, things are not always better. Bet you have never seen that on my Facebook wall.

And here is the {worst} mask of all. I post Bible verses, and hymn lyrics, and blogs about how much I love the Lord and how wonderful being in ministry is. I post about how #blessed and #thankful I am. I post all sorts of articles about "staying away from idols" or "godliness" or "Biblical womanhood and self image." When in fact, there are days that I do not want to pray and I don't. There are days, and {painful to admit} sometimes weeks I do not read my Bible. There are days that I do not feel like going to church and being around other believers. And at some point, every single day, I choose myself over God. I choose what I want rather than what I know is right.

But not many people would know these things because my pride keeps me hidden behind masks. My pride prevents me from using my life, my struggles, my sins and my shortcomings as instruments to point others to Christ. My pride keeps me from proclaiming the redeeming love of Christ through my brokenness. What a waste.

Each of these horrible things I do, say, or think(and the million others I didn't share) are bad. They are sinful and, frankly, embarrassing. And no matter how hard I try, or how many "masks" I post, I cannot overcome them myself. But the GREAT news is, I don't have to. Christ wants me just the way I am: as the weight-consious, baby-yelling, prideful woman that am I. He wants me to come to him that way because even though I cannot fix myself, He can. So rather than continuing to fuel my pride and "fix" myself, I would much, much rather Christ fix me instead (thank goodness Christ doesn't post his work subjects on social media, right?)

"He must become greater; I must become less"

John 3:30

I created my "masks" through social media, so I figured I need to break them through social media as well. Join me.

#unfiltered

5 Questions to ask before posting to social media {Here is a great article to help with this issue!}