Dear Cruz,

As your mama, my mind is filled with all things baby. It's hard to focus on much other than my milk supply, your naps, what we should do during your waketime, and what solid food I'm going to introduce next. At the same time, when something isn't going well, it's hard for me to focus on anything else but the problem itself. This week we are weaning you off the miracle blanket (yes, you still like to be swaddled at 6 months old!). Do I do it cold turkey or slowly wean you off of it? How long are you going to cry each time I lay you down? How many days is this going to last? Etc, etc. You get the picture. I get buried in all the negative things that could happen and overwhelmed by the fact that I have no clue how long it's going to be until things are back to normal. My thoughts and emotions take over and my spirit can't push through the thick walls they've built over the years. They've set up shop inside of me because I have left them untrained and undisciplined. This, I feel, is where God's plan includes an intense growth and transformation of faith...

(2 Cor 10:5) "We are destroying speculations and every ^(A)lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the ^(B)obedience of Christ."

We, through Jesus Christ, have the ability to hold our thoughts and emotions captive, standing them up against God's Word and truth instead of our own. In every situation, He gives us the power to choose spirit led emotions and thoughts. When we let the negative creep in, we have the choice to say, "Nope, I'm not buying into that. Instead, I am going to focus on patience, giving grace and mercy, and showing a lot of love. Today, I choose to focus on God's truth".

As for me, my natural reaction to stressful situations is to be impatient and pessimistic. However, that is not how God sees me or the place I want to live from by any means. In Christ, I have been made new to practice things like patience, grace and mercy, love, understanding, etc. If I live from the place God has made, I have access to His divine peace, understanding, grace, mercy, and love (and so much more). It is uncomfortable to suppress the thoughts and emotions that have run the show for so long but once we choose truth and choose to live from the place God has intended us to live, I can't imagine we'd want to turn back. How could we choose to run from the peace that comes along with a spirit led life?

Cruz, my prayer for you is that you would conquer every part of your human nature {your thoughts, your emotions, your own will} and submit them to God. Submit them to Him so you can be who you were meant to be in Christ Jesus... filled with the peace of God no matter how stressful or uncomfortable the situation might be. I pray you can look at everything and choose to say, Hallelujah, rejoice and just praise God for His goodness in your life.

I love you to the moon and back, Cruzer.

We're Home...

We finally made it.

The Move: Chase was THE MAN! Basically, he did everything and all I had to do was take care of Cruzer. I am so blessed to have such an incredibly supportive and helpful man by my side. He did all the research on how we were going to ship our stuff out, packed most of everything (although, this presented somewhat of a problem when I had to unpack since I didn't know where anything was:), drove 2,000 miles across the country with Jefe and Zeke, set up all the furniture, got our 2nd car out here, and has been a great tour guide since we got here. Everything is unpacked but the organizing is still a bit of a project. My dad came out with me and Cruz to help with stuff around the house since Chase started work on Monday. My dad was so helpful and it was really special for him to get to spend some quality time with Cruz (and Zeke... Zeke is literally obsessed with him!).

The Flight: Cruz was a champ. Despite being a little bit sick and cutting his first tooth he didn't fuss at all. It was a 4 hour flight and I timed it so he would sleep about 30 min into the flight and then again about 1 hour before we landed. I gave him some baby tylenol and let him eat as much as he wanted and he was a happy boy. It was so great having my dad with me to give me bathroom breaks and arm breaks (my biceps started cramping holding that 20lb boy for so long!). Of course the flight couldn't go perfectly. God had to give us a little challenge. Cruz pooped 3 times AND peed out of his diaper. This has literally never happened before and I could sense God chuckling at us when I went back into the extremely small bathroom for the 4th time with yet another dirty diaper:).

Our Home: I will post pictures soon but this place is amazing. I had seen pictures before we moved but they didn't do it justice. It's a 3 story town home and about 2500 sq ft (and of course we are paying hardly anything for it... such a difference from cali!) There is 1 bedroom with a bathroom on the first floor with the front door and garage. The 2nd floor has the kitchen, 1 bathroom and a dining room, which we turned in to Cruz's playroom. The 3rd story has the master bed/bath, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and laundry. The main floor is all wood floors and pretty open, which I love. There are some super cute, white built in bookshelves in the family room and a great fireplace/mantel.

When I first walked in I was so overwhelmed with God's provision. We never visited Atlanta or saw this place in person before signing the lease. How could God know exactly what we needed and wanted? He just amazes me and we feel so blessed to be here in a place we know God wants us. When you feel like you've walked with God through a big decision it brings an incredible amount of peace and assurance. Thank you, Lord, for taking such great care of your children! It's just like God to do something like this:)

What's Next: Who knows?! I am excited to feel settled, make friends, and just enjoy life. We are going to church this Sunday at the same place Chase went when he lived here in the 90's. Hopefully we will make some friends there and I'll connect with a couple of girls I went to high school with that live in the Atlanta area. We know God has us here for a reason so we are just going to enjoy the ride!

I'll post some pictures soon:)

6 Months!

19lbs 8oz, 28 inches

VERY quick update since we are right in the middle of our cross country move:

My baby boy is 6 months old and one busy little dude! When he's awake I literally have to move him from one activity to the next every 3 minutes because he gets bored with his toys (and yes, we've switched them out numerous times:). He just started sitting up by himself 2 days ago. I still stay close by just in case he loses his balance but he is doing great and loving the independence it brings. The poor guy wants to crawl so bad but just can't figure it out quite yet. He gets really frustrated and kicks his arms and legs and lets out a long and intense grunting sound. He's also saying (actually whispering) "da, da, da, da, da". Obviously he has no idea what he's saying but it's still fun for us. We had our checkup with the pediatrician last week and she said he looks very healthy, so no worries there. The only worry I have is our upcoming 4 hour flight and his 1st tooth that's about to break through. Please be praying that Cruz feels great this Saturday morning:)

Tara from TaraSierra Photography took some 6 month pics of Cruzer. Here are 2 of them: