I have been asked several times since we packed up our whole lives and moved our family of 6 from NC to FL almost 2 months ago, why would we do something so extreme if we never wanted to leave what we loved in the first place.  I am guessing those questions arrived from previous Facebook posts about the extreme rain that we've had and comments such as I miss home and of course the plethora of emojis used to describe how much I miss my people.  I have been told by several that you can feel the deep emotion I carried when I decided to write about the beginning stages of this journey and how sad leaving everything we loved behind actually was.

I cannot deny the hardness or the deep ache that I sometimes still feel in large waves when I reflect over the last few months.  I also cannot deny that our home here in Florida doesn't feel like home and if I lay in bed late at night and remember the street I used to live on, tears still fill my eyes because I truly miss that place on Tanbridge Road.  I also cannot deny that I have spoken to someone via phone or text from our previous town almost every day since we moved and that in itself has brought much needed comfort.

So why did we do it?

Today, my girls were out of school due to a maintenance issue and given that this was their first full week of "real" school for these former homeschoolers, I was ecstatic to have another pool day with my girls.  After some serious fun in the sun, we made our way back to the apartment.  This short walk always seems daunting for my 3 year old because she is so worn out from all of the `swimming, therefore everything, including her feet, weighs about 100 pounds.  So you can imagine the extreme whining that takes place on the excursion back.  With every step she rattles off almost every excuse not to keep going.  Anything from I'm hungry or I too tired to My feet won't work.  But with every excuse as to why she can't keep going, she continues to put one foot in front of the other.  Once inside, she knows what will come next... nap time.  As she tries to state her case of why she does not need to go night night, she looks me in the eyes, grabs my shoulders to step into her dry undies, and continues to climb into bed, snuggles herself with her blanket and begins to cry.  As I begin to shut the door, I can see her roll over toward the wall, onto her side as she cries one last plea of frustration.

As I shut my daughter's door today, I couldn't help but to discover the very answer that I have been asked over and over upon moving here.  I had explained it in probably many ways, but this was the first time that He had taken something that seemed complicated in my brain and made it very simple.

An act of obedience isn't always without complaint or groans or questions of why it has to happen this way.  In our experience, an act of obedience has often resembled those in the Bible.  More times than not, when God has asked Wade and I to step in obedience it hasn't been a quick decision or a rapid thought that has entered our mind.  It may have began with an initial thought but it usually follows with a long process.  With every step of obedience has come sacrifice in some area of our life and through this sacrificial obedience has come much growth in our spiritual walk with Jesus.  It's hard and its pruning and it doesn't feel good all the time.

BUT.

Every time, hindsight has shown us in the past 7 years that God is good and because He can see the whole picture He can make decisions that seem to scatter our lives but in reality these decisions are making us whole.

So there is my answer.  Just as my 3 year old walks in obedience despite her complaints, she knows that I love her and that I have taken care of her thus far in her little life.

How much more does my Heavenly Father love me?
SO. MUCH. MORE.

This is why we came.  This is why we packed up a 26 foot truck and left behind what we loved to venture into the unknown.  We trust Him and when He says go, YOU GO.  We may have fought it with our words and our thoughts and we may even have days in the future when we continue to question what He is doing and why He has us here.  Ultimately, we know that He is trustworthy and no matter the sacrifice we make, it doesn't compare to the sacrifice He made when He chose US on the Cross.  Jesus delivered the most important act of obedience when He said YES to the Father that day in the Garden.

When you sit on that one thought, no act of obedience or sacrifice can ever compare to what He did for us.




And just to be clear...
Florida is slowly growing on me.  We miss our friends and family like crazy but we are starting to find some really awesome places and people that make this unknown place feel more and more like home.  We are thankful for what God is showing us and what He is continuing to do in our lives to make way for His ultimate plan.  We are just the vessel and if our act of obedience makes way for the purpose He has of bringing freedom and victory to others, then any sacrifice is worth it.

Plus, with each Home Goods purchase this box feels more and more like a home. :)

This morning my husband told me to read Romans 8.  Seems like a simple, easy task.  I came in from dropping the older two off at their proper destinations, on time of course, which means that when I returned home the tornado of distraction was all around me.  Things out of place, dishes in the sink, beds unmade, laundry everywhere.  But I was determined to spend time with Him.  I straightened the living room up, popped in a movie for the 3rd born and nursed the babe to sleep.  I sat down with my Bible, pen and journal ready to hear from my Father who I desperately needed to be loved on by today.

Then it happened.  The life that surrounds me daily.  The life that I love, the life that I call my own, but the life that is really hard sometimes.  The door slams, the baby wakes up, the movie gets jammed from little fingers in the DVD player, the tot falls off the chair trying to reach the legos that she could swallow and before you know it I have read Romans 8 twice with absolutely no idea what it says, and the only scribble in my journal was that of my toddler when she saw mommy had a pen.

I got up and I acted like the very storm around me.  I called my husband in tears, I sent out a text to my best friend in frustration and I slammed the bouncy seat (with no baby) down on the table and screamed out "WHERE ARE YOU, LORD!?!?" with tears streaming down my face.  As soon as the words left my lips, I heard in my spirit, "I am right HERE with you."

Calmness began to happen even though I still had tears rolling down my face.  I was still frustrated.  I was still asking. I was still mad.  But I felt calmer.  I laid down the idea of a quiet time, turned on worship music and began my daily duties that I do every. single. day.

As I made my bed, I was asking myself why I became so upset.  It's not like the babies planned to ruin mommy's time with the Lord.  They were just doing their job, just as I am supposed to do mine.  But why did it have to be so hard?  I was then drawn to the thoughts I had just prior to sitting down with my Bible in hand.

This morning when I awoke, I checked Instagram.  It was flooded with bloggers who were sitting down with Jesus.  Except what was captured in their picture looked so very different than what was found in my viewfinder.  There was no coffee with a pretty cup or cozy cute socks over looking a beautifully decorated and clean kitchen.  There was no pretty doodling in my journal or a smell good candle burning in the background.  The view I had around me was not Instagram worthy.  Or was it?

How many times do we set ourselves up for failure by setting expectations that God never intends for us to set.   He sets the bar for our lives and too many times we allow comparison to raise that bar to heights and places that He never intended for us to go.  We want things to be perfect.  We want them documented in our social media and our minds as the perfect scenario and that we have it all together.  But really we are one big mess.  Waiting for a Savior to come and speak to us as we slam down the bouncy seat in pure frustration.  It was when I came to the end of myself that I heard His voice.  It was when I lost control of my flesh, laid it all down before Him in my own childish ways that His spirit came in, just like any Good and Loving Father and He took my hand and said I AM HERE, My Daughter.  I am with you.

My time with Him may not be Instagram worthy.  But I am ok with that because it's real.  I am learning that I must recognize my season, just as much as I must recognize the storm that it sometimes brings.  That yes, things are sometimes chaotic right now and I am running on coffee fumes, but He is still here.  He is here in the mundane.  He is here in the bed making and the diaper changing.  He is here with me.

After putting the babe in the swing, making the bed and fixing the dvd player, I sat.  I sat with my computer, writing this blog with worship music playing in almost silence.  My 3rd born danced in front of the TV and my baby smiled at me from across the room.  It took this reckless morning of raw emotions to bring me to this point.  The point of peace.  The Instagram worthy moment.  The moment when I realized that this is what it's about.  The moments in life when you recognize that this life we call our own, really isn't ours to begin with.  That we belong to Him and He loves to allow us to be comforted by Him.  He loves when we lay ourselves down to be wrapped in His love.

Maybe I just needed to write these words for myself.  Maybe for my future self when I slam down another piece of furniture in frustration.  Or maybe for someone else out there who is experiencing the frustration of His silence.  He is with you.  He loves you and He is waiting for you to lay it down at the feet of Jesus in pure surrender that you cannot do it all.  The comparison is the thief of all joy and you must recognize the storm that surrounds you.

Peter, he knew and recognized the storm surrounding him but yet he still got up and walked on water to be with his Savior.  Peter's faith allowed him to take the first few steps, but then the wind began to overwhelm him and his flesh became weak and flooded him with doubt of what God could do.  He then called out to Jesus in despair.  And just as Jesus always does, He reached out his hand to Peter.  And together they walked on water through the storm.

I felt like Peter this morning.  I tried, I failed, I became overwhelmed and He rescued me. Again.  And always.

Since I last wrote, we have welcomed our fourth baby girl into the Nagy mix.  I don't think I need to explain why my posts come and go with months in between.  However, when the Lord speaks to me in a strong way and He tells me to share it on this blog... I choose to be obedient because I can only assume that there is someone out there that needs to hear these words as well.  I love how God gives us nuggets of Truth, not just for us to consume it all ourselves but to share it with others.  That is living the Kingdom life.  It's not just about us.

my last post was august 10th.  over two months ago.  so much has happened during our time apart i'm sure, but as of now there is only one thing that i can think of that is still the same.

i. am. still. pregnant.

my actual due date is not until the 20th of october, but yes, i am one of the many that has fallen into the belief that MY baby will arrive early and completely deprive me of those last few agonizing weeks of swollen feet and the need for an oxygen tank in order to walk from my house to the car.  but she hasn't.  she is nice and snug and i have come to acknowledge the idea that she may be in there for the long haul.  40 weeks that is it.
no more.  any more than that should never be allowed.

the reason why i was compelled to open my laptop instead of snoozing on the couch was despite all of the moaning and groaning i just did in the above paragraph, i actually wanted to write about this beautiful thing called pregnancy.

i have never really enjoyed pregnancy if we are being transparent.  i say that with so much delicacy because i know that a lot of people would wear my complaints, plus some just in order to be pregnant.  so please hear my heart on this.  i am so lucky to be able to carry my own children.  however, it's tough.  i will never tell another women or my kids for that matter that being pregnant is a piece of cake.  if there is a side effect of being pregnant, i have experienced it.  sure on the outside, i carry my belly well, i don't gain a ton (only 50lbs, but i am tall) of weight... but on the inside my body trembles at the thought of being pregnant one more time.

i knew the day i found out about baby #4, that our family was complete.  i just knew it.  my husband and i never would have guessed that one day we would be a family of 6.  there was even a day, believe or not that we considered only having ONE child.  i honestly can't imagine how differently our life would have been, had God not changed those plans.  if you had asked me 6 years ago a few things i would NEVER do, those things would consist of driving a mini-van, homeschooling, giving birth naturally and buying fruit snacks in bulk just to have something to throw backwards while driving around the hungry vultures in the back.
those are just to name a few.  and i have done all of them and then some.

but pregnancy.  i sit here and my whole body hurts, my varicose veins are bulging up at me and i have to pee.  for the 100th time today.  but i stare at my belly in disbelief that God would choose me to do this, not once, but 4 times.  that he would choose me to carry life.  life in which He created.  life in which He has purposed.  He chose me to nurture, feed, soothe and actually BRING life into this world.  i don't know why.
i don't have to know why in order to know that it is B I G.  very big.

i wanted to write this blog being very pregnant.  because one day i will miss the ability to tangibly carry life.  i may even miss the swollen ankles and the jacked up thyroid.  but i know that as this season of "toughness" leaves and a new season of life enters the nagy home... that one day i will look back and think how quickly these last 9 months flew by.  how quickly the last 10 years have gone.  and so on.

that no matter the struggle, the outcome will be good and it will be blessed because that is what my God has promised me.

it occurred to me that in a few weeks or whenever this babe decides to make her debut, that i will no longer carry tangible life on the inside of me.  and there is a part of me that gets very sad at this one thought...

but then i remember that i carry life in a whole different way.  life that is in my words, my actions, how i raise my kids and the justice that i stand for.

whether you are pregnant with your first child, your 4th or you have never been pregnant in your whole life, YOU carry life.  you as a woman, carry meaning.  you have the ability to change the lives of others by what you stand for, what you take action upon and what you do to change the world we live in.  we can either sit around and complain about swollen ankles and or current circumstances, or we can get up, walk through the swollen places in our life and move on toward bigger and better things.  never do we as women, have to sit and do nothing.  He created us with a passion to carry life, His greatest possession.
i think that qualifies us to stand up and make a difference.

i want to encourage you that just as this one season of change for me is ending, a new season of life is just around the corner.  the areas that i am leaving behind, may make me sad, but the new is going to bring much joy and satisfaction.  just as in any part of our life, when one thing dies, God is bringing about something new, something alive, something that is going to bring you growth and enjoyment.

let what is dead in your life be removed and move on.  He is ready to bring about something new.
debt, divorce, failure, you name it... whatever it is that you are carrying, carry it no more and choose to carry life as a woman of faith.

that is why HE created YOU.  you only get one life.  so carry it well sisters.

xx.


<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>

and here are a few of the amazing images of my very 1st maternity shoot that my friend blessed me with.
i am beyond thankful to have captured my last baby bump on camera.













and yes... that rainbow is real.  not photoshop.  another reminder of HIS ever so real promises.

Some may call it pregnancy hormones and others may simply see it as me stressing.  I am ok with both of those answers, but what I am not ok with is the inability to release the restlessness in my heart, my mind and here lately my actions.

The last few months our family has had some major changes... pregnancy, jobs, just to name a few and we are still hurdling over the financial difficulties that I have expressed over and over on this blog.  I have a deep spiritual restlessness inside of me and I am so ready for the miracle.  Almost to the point where I am trying to MAKE things happen.  Which is never a good thing.  Or a God thing.  I was thinking about this and it dawned on me how much this lines up with what I am going through in my own body.

I am currently 7.5 months pregnant.  It is almost mid-August and the heat is scorching hot.  I cannot check the mail without literally sweating my face off.  Not to mention that this is child #4.  Not that I do not see pregnancy as a gift, because I certainly do, but I would be lying if I said I loved how I feel when I am pregnant.  I am over it.  I am ready.  I have felt the presence of a newborn baby fresh out of the womb.  I have experienced the first cries and the ability to nurse my child for the very first time.  I have taken in all of the smells of that newborn smell (with a little help from Dreft) and I have watched that sweet baby cuddle up in my arms with its legs curled up under that sweet little tushy.  And I am ready for it N O W.  I am ready to meet my sweet girl.  If I could skip the next 2 months, I gladly would and go straight to holding my sweet daughter.

I feel the exact same about the process of waiting on God.  I am beyond ready for the miracle.  So ready to see what God is going to do with this huge mountain that seems to constantly stand in our way.  I am ready for the mountain to be casted into the sea and for deliverance to come once and for all.  I am ready to see my God move and I want to see it now.

Why must every day feel like another waiting session?  Why must it seem so dreadful some days waiting on the One that could change everything with one word.

I guess for the same reason that if my body went into labor right now, I would immediately start praying that God would stop it.  Because as much as I am ready for this baby, she is not.  Her body and her lungs need to develop more and her main nutrients to do so are found deep inside of this perfectly made womb that God has placed her in.  He is not done creating this little girl inside of me.  And as a mother who wants the best for her child, I am willing to wait.  I am willing to wait through the hot sweats, the swollen ankles, the varicose veins and the abundance of hormones all because I know the outcome will be perfect when she is
R E A D Y to be born.

Which leads me to my place of restlessness.  I want the miracle now, but I want the capacity in my mind, my heart and my spirit to hold the miracle that He has for me FIRST.  Before He gives me the miracle, I want to be ready spiritually so that I don't ever lose sight of the One who gave it to me.  I want God to fully develop His perfect plan for my life and as much as I am having trouble being patient, I am willing to wait because I know it will be T H A T good.

Is the wait easy?  HECK NO.  But I am choosing to focus on the final birth of the miracle.   I fully believe that tonight as I struggled to believe His goodness for my life, that He ever so kindly used this big belly of mine to softly remind me of the miracle in the process.  That we all have a womb that is being knitted together by Him, for us and that the wait may be hard, but it will produce LIFE in the end.

Now if we could just get God to work on a 9 month, trimester type basis that would be great. :)

Until then, it's a daily renewal.  Waking up each day with the attitude of "Today Is The Day" and lying down each night letting go of all the moments when patience was not your best quality.   And starting over the next day believing for the same thing from the same God who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

When I was a little girl, I could do anything.  I could soar the skies as an airplane attendant and see the world.  I could give all of the needy food and clothes and make sure that their lives were filled with love.  I could ride a horse across the US and ski the Colorado mountains.  I could live out any dream I had in my little, vibrant mind.  The world was mine and it was just an arms reach of achieving pretty much anything I wanted in my life.

But the reality of my life was quiet different.  I was a quiet, often a shy little girl that wanted to please everyone that came across my path.  That niceness and that compassion was often a gift but it also led to insecurities as I watched friends come and go in and out of my life.  My childhood consisted of turning mud pies into lavish cakes and old beer cans into delicious island smoothies, as me and some other childhood friends managed to build a fort away from home deep in the woods near the family barn and create a place of our own.  We didn't have much, but we sure did have an imagination.  I remember once we piled up sheets of old tin left over from the barn roof, on the ground.  Our purpose was to make a trampoline.  And it worked.  We never told our parents cause we knew that we were jumping on a tetanus shot waiting to happen... but once the jumping began, that old tin turned into the best trampoline we could have ever imagined.  The logs that we had to climb to get over to the treacherous swamps were really mere logs that had fallen over a small spring of water.  But in our minds it was an adventure to be had.  We had the time of our lives in those woods that was just yards from the busy interstate 40.  But in our minds, we were hours away from our normal lives and we had created something great.  Something we had dreamed about.

Now let's skip to College.  And with that season the infamous question arose.  What do you want to major in?  I remember the words rolling off of my dad's tongue as I received the letter of acceptance to Appalachian State University.  I was standing in the kitchen with my new college packet as a young 17 year old who had just got home from cheerleading practice whose primary concern was what I would wear to school the next day.  Basically he had just asked the question...

What do you want to do with the R E S T of your Life.

I remember my response to this day.  I wanted to be a teacher.  And as the words left my mouth I remember the doubt that I had felt inside of me at that very moment.  It was as if I had just sentenced myself to a lifetime of an endless career with no way out.  I felt like I had determined my whole life in one plan by just determining my career choice.  Now this may be ok for most, but I remember the sickening feeling I had at that very moment.

I spent the rest of my college years pursuing Elementary Education, but considered changing my major at many times throughout.  Once I wanted to be a Park Ranger so that I could hike the Appalachian Trail.  The other was maybe I should be a photographer so that I could work for the National Geographic, travel the world and take pictures of animals that I am terrified of.  Bad idea.  I am barely capable of taking a decent picture with an iPhone and I am pretty sure that anything larger than a dog should be behind bars.

So what was that?  Why was I determined to set myself on a path of becoming one thing, but yet I wrestled with constant dreaming, constant ideas, constant desires of more.  I craved an adventure.  But that wasn't supposed to be... I was supposed to start a career, work, retire and then I could enjoy life before I kick the bucket.  Wasn't that how it worked?

I became a teacher in the year of 2004.  I spent one semester in the classroom and I then stepped into other careers.  Surprise, Surprise.  Several careers actually.  I returned to what I knew which was the classroom and I stayed there until I had my first child.

I loved being a stay at home mom.  I still do.  There is never a day that goes by that I am not thankful for my time here with my children.  There is not a day that my life as a mom is not an adventure.  It changes every day.

But I am craving more.  I want to continue dreaming even at the age of 32.  I don't know that I ever want to answer the question of "what do you want to do for the rest of your life" with one simple answer.  My prayer is that God would continue to take me out of my comfort zone and send me on the adventures that I dreamed of as a child.  That even as an adult, that I would dream of finally seeing those Colorado mountains and visiting other countries to save the world one person at a time.  I pray that He will bring me into places that some are afraid to go and that He would show me places that blow my imagination away.  And mostly I pray that when I leave this earth, that when my girls talk about their mother they will say, "she spent her whole life living her God-given adventure, unafraid, unhindered and unwilling to stop short of what God had for her."

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.  And part of me prays that I never do.  That I am able to live my life with continued dreams, hope and craving the adventure.  And I mostly pray that these cravings, that they will lead to me doing.  That when the time comes, that I will not cling to what is comfortable or what I know to be the "safe thing" but that I will hop on board with complete trust in who my Father is and the plans He has for me.

Until that day, my adventures of kid tantrums, the buzzillion life questions I answer in a day to my kids, the tears that I wipe clean along with the kisses and hugs, are perfect training ground for my next big adventure.  I feel certain that at the age of 32... my life is just now beginning.

How about you?

Last summer we moved into this whole house of ours.  It was a lovely Ranch style home overtaken by the monsoon of jungle that wrapped all the way around the house.  I remember shortly after moving here that there wasn't a single window that you could not see some sort of vine or shrub slowly creeping up it.  And the grass.  Whoa.  It was green and lush and pretty much all weeds.  Yup, not much grass to be seen.  However, that late in the summer our only option was to mow and keep it mowed as it grew like wild flowers.  I mean dandelions.

I am a daughter of a landscaper.  Having pretty grass, you know with the stripes and all, is just how I know to do things.  I usually never notice the weeds in the neighbors yard, but the ones in mine, they taunt me and tease me and literally drive me crazy.  I was actually thankful when winter came and the whole jungle became dormant.

Now, it is Spring.  And things are finally starting to take shape.  Wade Nagy spent a whole weekend last Fall trimming and practically butchering off every shrub surrounding the house and as you can see it paid off this Spring.  Our plan is to add a shrub, a flower, here and there until we have the beds full and colorful.  But this is a start.  Especially from last year.




We went from a lush weed garden to a dry and barren desert.

We have used weed killer and slowing the weeds are dimensioning.  However, grass doesn't magically grow in the bare spots and it is looking like we may have to wait until Fall since the summer heat has already began to set in.

I was thinking about how ugly the yard is and I was actually embarrassed about it.  I am having a wedding shower at my house in a few weeks for a friend and I am a little ashamed to invite them to the Sahara.  However, it dawned on me just like everything else that this is a process.

I want the green grass and I want it now.  But the reality of it is that it takes time.  You have to work diligently, be patient and the seed has to be planted at the right time. Otherwise you are planting seed that will never grow.

Get where I am going with this?

So often we want our dreams and desires to come to pass right now.  We look across the road at our neighbors and see that theirs is beautiful and lush and we wonder why it isn't happening for us.  We want to be in our God-given destiny and we want it NOW.  We can see it, feel it and we are eager.  But the timing just isn't quite right.  We have to learn to wait on His timing.  As hard as it is.  We don't have to understand it and honestly I don't think the Lord wants us to.  He wants us to fully trust, rely and obey.  Then at the proper time, the seed will be planted, it will take root and the it will grow into the beautiful thing that it was intended to be.

And this time... it will be fully "weed free,"

So as I watch the weeds fade away, I am determined to see the bare spots as areas where the Lord will grow newness.  No longer are they considered bare and dry, they are new pallets waiting for new seed to be planted so that when the time is right, the grass will grow abundantly.

You just WAIT till next Fall.

I was planning on announcing my good news with a fancy picture and a new blog post.  But then the unexpected happened so here goes my news...

About 8 weeks ago I had a dream.  Wade and I were holding a baby boy in the hospital.  All of the staff from LifeCC were there in the room and one of them was even talking about the amazing eye lashes on this little bundle.  The baby's name was Porter.  He was beautiful.

I woke up that morning and told Wade that it was probably the most real dream that I have ever had.  Later that day, I decided to take a few minutes and look up the meaning of Porter.  It means "gatekeeper."
The job of the gatekeeper in the Bible was to keep the sheep in line with the shepherd.
To keep believers in line with the Lord.

Instantly, I knew that this name had some weight and carried a lot of meaning.  And we actually liked it too.
But I wasn't pregnant.  Nor did we want to be for at least another year.  I mean we have some pretty big plans ahead of us.  We needed to get "prepared" before adding on number four.  BUT, this dream... well it caused the curiosity to take over so I decided to take a test for fun.  Positive.  Porter was already in the making.
I was unexpectedly expecting.

We announced it to our closest friends and family and were going to wait and do a big gender announcement for the rest of the world.  Aka Facebook.

But these plans changed.

Last Monday, I received a phone call.  A call that no mother-to-be ever wants to hear.  She simply informed me of their discoveries and that I needed to see my doctor as soon as possible.  The doctors had found some fluid on the back of the baby's neck that was abnormal.

A few calls later and a good chat with my mid-wife, I found out what we were dealing with and the next steps that needed to take place.  And a good cry.  A very long, out pour of a cry.

You see, this very moment brought back such stand-still moments from the past into my mind and body.
I remember the call that I received with Lela that there was a mass on her brain.  I remember where I was standing, what I was wearing and what I felt when the words left the doctors lips.  I also remember the day that God healed her.  I had never seen, nor felt the mighty Hand of God like I did that day.  HE reached into my womb and the mass disappeared.  Even the doctors were confused.

So when the flood of tears came this time, I chose to remember that day just 4 and half years ago.  That day of healing.  This held me far above my fears.  This truth of what God could do, what He WILL do gave me peace that surpassed all understanding.

So instead of giving life to the words of what this could be, I am asking that you give life to what it should be... and that is total healing and health.  I am asking that you pray for Baby Porter and that you pray for me.  That I will be strong, no matter what lies ahead simply because I know that my Father leads the way.  

SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO...
I would like to announce Baby Porter who will be here sometime around October 26th.
Healthy, Whole and Full of God's Purpose.

This weekend Life Community Church, our church that we love, celebrated their 10th year birthday.  It was an amazing celebration for us and considering that we have only been a part of this family for the past 3 years, I can't even begin to imagine the emotion that was felt by our Pastors, Tim and Harriet.

Saturday was a day of celebration where over 500 of our church family and friends gathered to run. play, hunt for easter eggs and eat.  It was by far one of the most fun celebrations that I have been a part of.  I could describe the event down to the very last easter egg color, but it wouldn't describe the joy that was found on that soccer field.  That's because it wasn't found in all of the fun activities and hip music being played... it was found in the family that all came together to celebrate one purpose. Life Community Church has impacted one city and many more for 10 years... all from the vision that God had placed in the hearts and minds of two believers, who decided then and there, that they would answer God's calling for their lives.  And standing on that field, seeing all of those people, was like standing on the mountain and seeing two people's vision being fulfilled all because they were willing to answer Him.

Last night after we came home and put our exhausted girls to sleep, just before my head hit my own pillow, I found myself reflecting on the last 10 years of my life.  Ten years ago, I had been dating my true love for almost a year.  I was in the middle of my student teaching semester in college and was about to graduate from ASU.  I was living with my parents at the time and commuting as much as possible to Cornelius to see Mr. Wade Nagy, the man I wanted to marry.  I remember praying for a job that would bring me closer to him.

Throughout this 10 year span, I went through about 8 different jobs trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, but finally landed back at teaching first grade.  I married the man who supported every crazy decision, even the one where I thought  I wanted to be an airplane attendant, as he watched me fly myself to D.C to attend a training, all to realize that it wasn't for me.  Upon getting married, we had our first born just a year and half later and it wasn't long after that we stumbled upon Jesus again.  This was a marker in our life.  We had no idea until this point what we had been missing.  We have always loved Jesus.  But this is where we began to KNOW Him.  And it was beautiful.  Our life took a turn in ways that we had never dreamed and with each new spiritual growth, we encountered tremendous push-back.  Job-losses, dreams shattered, finances in shambles and health issues arose... but we were stronger because of Him.  We had our second born, moved to our dream city of Wilmington and brought home our third baby girl one year later.  It may not seem like much when written down, but it was quite the journey.

Today, at church we celebrated again.  And this time, involved Gluten Free Cupcakes. :) :) After church, Wade, the girls and I went to lunch.  We decided to reflect on where we wanted to be in 10 years.  This topic was completely interrupted with "where's my fork, cut my pizza and momma I gotta potty..." but we did have a few good minutes to talk.  For starters... I will be 42 and the ages of my children will range from 16 to 13.  Freaky!! And with that said, we also realized that there WILL be a day when Wade and I can actually finish a conversation.  Which made this crazy, chaotic moment seem more enjoyable and ever so fleeting.

But as for the things we don't know, the things that only God can see but things that He too shapes from the desires of our heart...  Those are the things that I want to stand on the field one day and look back and celebrate our vision, His vision and how it came to pass.

Wade and I listed several things that we want to happen in the next 10 years.  Those things will change and some will grow into other, bigger, better ideas, but it was exciting and eye opening to list those dreams out.  And for this season to be a season of where our visions actually involve our children.  They too will be standing on the field with us reflecting on what God has done.  We truly believe that the last 10 years of our life has been a training ground for us and that moving forward into the next 10 years, it will be a time to really be used by and for His Kingdom.  That all of those moments of trial, we will soon see such fruit and blessings come from it and that in turn will win others to Jesus Christ.

So as our church has said all weekend long...

THE BEST IS YET TO COME.

What do you want to make of your next 10 years?