A Trip to T-ROY!

My man got home last Monday night from a week in Costa Rica! Glory! I was so excited! The airport greeting with Eric wasn’t as epic as I had envisioned… Monday was a struggle… BUT it was still fantastic to have both my fellas together again!

Last week was a tougher one. It was a month mark since we’ve been home… and I think the processing of the transition was taking place. I think the reality of permanency was kicking in, the boundaries were being tested, and his heart was adjusting. I know he thinks I’m crazy at times… and I am… and I may be going about it all wrong, but I don’t care. There were times when I knew something was really wrong. I felt like he needed to get it out. I would ask him what was wrong and his reply was “nothing…” and he would just look down.  We all know that’s not nothing. So I stayed with him. I explained to him that I’m his momma. I am not a caretaker at the orphanage who may accept “nothing” as an answer and move on. I care about him and love him more than he knows… and I would sit there until we talked it out. I told him that nothing he said would hurt my feelings, make me angry, or make me love him less.. and same for his dad. I explained that in our family… we talk. When something is wrong with one of us, we talk it out because we know the others want to know and help if possible. I just want to know what’s going on… forever. I assured him that this NEW-ness was hard… and anything he was going through would be okay. And… then we sat.

Finally… he talked. He wrote. He got some stuff out. Some fears were exposed. Some frustrations were told. Some teenage-NESS was revealed. And it’s all good.  I love that boy and am SO SO SO thankful he is our son. I wish he could know how much he is loved… I guess that comes with time.

As the week continued, his joy returned, more laughter occurred, his singing and “megatron” voice reappeared, and his awesome/crazy/hilarious stories were told again! I believe he truly does love it here and his new family… just gotta talk it out.

Heading down to Troy!

This past weekend we visited our old home of Troy, Alabama! We went down for some of our babies’ graduation. Some of the kiddos that graduated were in the 8th grade when I met them (6th grade when Jacob met them). It was really special for us to be there as they got their diplomas. I LOVED LOVED LOVED hugging their necks and taking lots of pictures with them! We got to stay with The Knicks – our ol’ Pastor Andrew, Kelli, Raeleigh, and Parker. We basically took over their house for a few days, ate lots of their food, played with their kiddos, and had a GREAT time!! It was perfect!

Charles Henderson High School graduation

 

We had such a great time seeing our friends, hugging necks, and introducing Eric to all of our Troy friends. I also got to eat at my fav Troy restaurant, Half Shell… YUM!! Eric met a TON of people over the weekend. I don’t think he’ll ever understand the love that people have for him and the expectation we (I feel like this was a group effort) all experienced waiting for him to be home. We tried to explain to him that the people in Troy, more than any others besides are family, have been in on this adoption since day one! They’ve known about him since 2012 and have waited with us, prayed for us, and supported us throughout the entire journey! So thankful for our Troy family!

Jacob, Zack, and Jeff (some of our youths)

Me and Ang… whom I love!

Caleb (one of the graduates) and Jacob – they were glad to see each other!

 

It’s SO awesome and just makes my heart pitter-patter when Eric gets around younger kids. He is so good with them, and they are all drawn to him and just adore him! He was one of the oldest in the orphanage for quite a while, so he became a pro at playing with the youngers, making up fun games, being patient with them, and sharing whatever he has with them. Check out Raeleigh just sitting with him! She loved it. She just stared up at him in amazement. She was so calm and peaceful when she was with Eric.

LOVED getting to squeeze Rae! It had been FAR too long! She’s about to be ONE.. WHAT?!?!

And… since we were in Troy, we HAD to keep going to the beach for the day!! We were SO close! So, Saturday we packed up and headed to the beach for a fun day! Eric hadn’t experienced the real beaches of the Gulf. Although NOTHING can compete to the beauty of Caye Caulker in Belize… the overall FUN of the beaches here is FANTASTIC! White, soft sand… lots of room to play… beautiful oceans… YEP! Good stuff! We spent the day hanging out, playing Bocce Ball, swimming in the ocean, jumping over waves, holding cute babies, and laughing! And then… eating yummy seafood with the beach in the background! Check out some pics…

My favorite place with my favorite people!

Me & Rae

Raeleigh LOVED Jacob!!

Best friends… family – The Morgans love the Knicks

Me and Mrs. Wanda – we were able to go hang out with The Motes for a bit before we left! We had to explain to Eric how awesome they are! They basically became our 2nd family while we were in Troy – biggest supporters and sounding boards!

Parker and Eric dug until they found water! Parker LOVED Eric, of course!

Sunday we were able to go to our old church home – Southside Baptist. It was good to be welcomed in again and see people so excited to meet Eric! Loved it! I miss the ladies in the church… they were fabulous.  One woman, Ms. Immy, asked us both, “So without me, who is taking care of y’all and keeping you in line?” Haha. She loved to tell Jacob how she felt and hug on both of us. Miss the simple things like that. It’s good to go visit.

I hope your weekend was as fun as ours! I hope you have a great friends like we do and you make a way to spend time with them! It’s always worth it!

Just some pics…

Just some pictures from a perfect weekend @ the beach with some great people.

That is all.

Have a great week! 🙂

WoRtHy Of ThE gOsPeL…

It has been a super rainy week… super rainy.
But that meant lots of resting, board games, and food! 🙂 

For the 4th, we heading to Lake Martin with the in-laws for the day. We had lots of fun… good conversation, yummy food, lots of rain, and games in the camper.  Jacob and I rode bikes for a little while – we now understand how we were so fit as kids. Riding bikes is a killer! Thighs were throbbing after scooting around the whole campsite…

Friday we headed down to Fort Walton Beach to hang out with Patrick and Amber. It was super fun and relaxing.  And again… lots of rain. We knew it was going to rain and we probably weren’t going to get a tan but we decided that a rainy weekend with a pretty view was better than a rainy weekend cooped up in Troy. 

Friday night we ate at Floyd’s in Fort Walton. It was scrumptious! They had all you can eat shrimp for $14.99! can’t beat that! We got to sit, chat, and watch surfers bust = entertainment! 

Patrick’s family lives on the bay so the view was spectacular! And… Friday night when we got back, we hung out on the pier and then sat in swing on the porch and listened to live music!! Their house is close enough to a bar that you can hear the live music!! FREE ENTERTAINMENT!! It was great! We did get to kayak in the bay for a little while on Saturday before another monsoon came… I definitely thought I was going to get flooded and sink in the middle of the bay… and then get eaten by a shark. But… we survived. 

Isn’t that view great!?!?! How do people just live here??? So great! 

Last night, we had our first July Family night for the church. We ate, played games, and… JACOB WON A PIE EATING CONTEST!!! I’m definitely a proud wife! 

He was miserable after… and all night. BUT… there’s no glory without pain! Haha! 

So… this next thing I haven’t really told anyone because it’s kinda odd to bring up. And… it’s just kind of a strange concept for me right now. I don’t really know how to talk about it yet because I don’t have the answers, but I have to tell it because it’s part of HIS story. So… what better way to tell it than on this here blog… 

Last weekend at camp –
The last night of camp wasn’t your typically mushy, let’s all cry and sing “Kumbaya”… it was a call to ACTION… a call to full-time ministry. Ergun Caner delivered a message on our callings and purpose in life. It was one of those messages for me that made me just squirm in my chair and want to hide in the bathroom the whole time.  It was a call from the mediocre to ministry. A call from settling to soaring. I knew it was for me. At the end of his message, he challenged those who believed they were called to full-time ministry to stand up.  He gave a list of requirements including: if you stand up, you MUST go before your church and do the same the next sunday. if you stand up, you are committing to go anywhere, do anything, at anytime for the spread of the Gospel. if you stand up, you are promising to not listen to idiots who will want to speak logic and opposition to you.  
So… what did God make me do? STAND UP. Ugh… I was terrified. I told Him I just wanted to sit down. This was a youth camp and I didn’t need to be standing. I knew that He was going to use me and I was fine with just knowing that, and not making a scene about it.  Nope… He kept me standing. I HATE those awkward moments with God when He forces me to just obey and shut up. I was standing and Jacob was sitting beside me. He just smiled at me. I was thinking, “What in the world does this mean, God? I have no idea what I’m doing standing up? I’M FREAKIN’ OUT!”…
Then, Ergun made all of us standing – there was about 15 of us (AMAZING!) – go outside to meet with him. I frantically grabbed Jacob’s hand and headed outside. Also heading outside was one of our youth, Caleb, and Barrett from our church. God is crazy and beautiful. 
We met with Ergun and talked with each other. We were all terrified and excited. We were deemed ministers of the Gospel, prayed for, and then celebrated with. Ergun was PUMPED when Jacob told him that me, his wife, just stood up to respond to the call.  Ergun said his wife did the same… and it changed everything! He even texted his wife to tell her! 🙂 God is good at confirming decisions… 

So… what does this mean? 
I HAVE NO CLUE! God knows because He is the one who made me stand up! All I know, like I told Jacob, is that I am tired of living a mediocre life. Some may say I’m not, but I know I am NOT made to sit in an office and just answer emails and interpret at times.  I am not made to settle.  I am made to speak truth to women, to invest, to equip others for mission, and to go on mission myself- local and international.  I feel most alive with I am free to minister and serve… so why not live like that all the time? I believe standing up was about SURRENDER… SURRENDER to the call that God has placed on the Morgans’ lives. To SURRENDER to fully supporting my hubby’s dreams and his vision for our future… to SURRENDER to WHATEVER God has dreamed for us… to SURRENDER to feeling totally freaked out standing in a room full of youth and adults committing my life to full-time ministry… yea… surrender. 
He’ll show us the way… He is faithful. We know that PEACE comes from full obedience. We know that Joy is found in His presence and in His path. We know His path takes PATIENCE and WISDOM and PRAYING and WAITING. So… here we are… two people surrendered the call of full-time ministry… waiting for God to move so we can follow. 

So… because we stood up… we had to go to the front of the church yesterday… like we promised… (Not pictured: Barrett… he had to leave early)

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ… without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.

Philippians 1:27-28

Learning and Living…

Hi there! 

Happy Wednesday!  So… I’ve been learning a LOT lately! I haven’t been able to figure out how to say it all yet… but I am surely learning.  I guess when you stop throwing pity parties for yourself and start asking God to make your teachable… He does it. Not to say that I don’t get sad or just miss my kiddos that live miles away… I’m just trying to learn through the tears and the thrills instead of dwelling in discouragement. 

Anywho… check out what we’ve been doing…

I love taking pictures that the Bible study girls can look back on and see where God has brought them. So… for the last Bible study of the year… I took pictures of the girls with a verse that they could cling to no matter what the future, or the past, held! Aren’t they cool? 

Then… we graduated off some really great people…

And had a really great service to celebrate them…

I’m excited about our next group of seniors movin’ on up! They are awesome too! Can’t wait to eat lunch with EACH one of the girls this summer… that’s my goal! 

Just a reminder… our dogs are ridiculous… Jubi is lounging… on a table… she’s weird. She’s gotten on the patio table and just laid there everyday this week… strange! 

This is how they greet us.  Yes… the black blob at the bottom is Jubi.

For Memorial Day weekend we got to spend time at the beach with Ashley and Jared…. it was fabulous!!! Love spending time with them… and JOHANNA!!!! 

Life is good. It’s good to be taught. It’s good to live and learn… to enjoy the moments in the waiting.  To be thankful for the here and now and excited about the future.