Caleb's prayer

"Thank you God that we all went to the doctor today and that they put a baby sister in Mommy's belly...."

(Yes, it's a girl!)

More amazing video

Another amazing video by the creative team at Elevation Church.

Elevation Easter Experience: Opening Video from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

Nuzum news

So this will not be "new" news to most of you, but in case you haven't heard the latest...Nuzum #4 is on the way! The first trimester was pretty rough (to state it mildly), so I wanted to dedicate this post to all our friends and family who, without them, I (& more importantly our other three children) would not have survived! First of all, to my rock star husband, you are amazing! As you can see from this picture, he did not turn and run the day Ella announced the news to her Daddy that she was going to be a "big sister" (& he's even smiling!!...although now that I'm looking closer, it does look a little forced).

Anyway, thanks honey, not only for not bolting out the door, but for all you did those first few weeks to keep our home running and our children alive. Needless to say, we eventually realized he could not be a professor, run a clinic, edit articles, write book chapters, AND be a stay at home Dad. So being the incredible leader he is, he decided to delegate some responsibility and call in the troops (which meant, whoever he could beg or pay). First to arrive: Granny Hambrick. Karen, I can not thank you enough for everything you did for us while you were here. There is no question that you were here during the worst of it, so I thank you for taking complete control of my home and family for an entire week while I took up residence in the bathroom. We love you! Next to arrive was my sister, brother in law, and nephew. Wendy, I cherish any opportunity I get to spend with my little sister, even if it's not under the best of circumstances. It's not always easy to accept help, so having you here to say "Go lay down before I drop kick you to bed!"....Well, only you could say that to me and it work. :) Seriously, I don't know what I would do without you in my life, and you left me with a deep desire for Ella to have a little sister as well! Gerald - thank you for being the best uncle on the planet!! And to our sweet Jakester ~ I know you had a hard time being away from home, but your cousins had a blast with you, and it was so great to see Ella so mesmerized by you! (Hopefully a good sign for things to come)

Then, as if she hadn't had enough fun the first time, Granny Hambrick returned (this time with back up...who could blame her!) The kids had so much fun with their grandparents and Aunt Koko! And I was so glad to be feeling better so that I could enjoy their company too!

Our final guest to arrive was Grandpa Nuzum. It takes one brave Grandpa to come (alone) into this busy home with three energetic kids and an incompacitated Momma. I was really worried for awhile that Ella was going to run you completely ragged. But from what I hear, you raised one very similar to her ;) So thank you, Ron, for cleaning our house, feeding our family, providing me with some adult conversation, and most of all for giving my kids a great week with their Grandpa!! We love you!

There's so many others I need to thank, and I'll try to make it short since I'm already going to get grief for this post being so long. To all our other family and friends who showered me with emails, phone calls, daily texts, & prayer, thank you! It meant SO much to me to know I had so many standing in the gap for me when I didn't have the energy to pray myself. To my cooking group, who, even though I missed our meeting, you all cooked for me anyway & filled our freezer with meals. You girls are amazing!! Alison~Friend, neighbor, 2nd Mommy to our kids, always willing to add our three to your three at a moments notice...thank you...never move! Emily~only you would show up at my front door at 8:30am with a cooler full of food and say "Go to bed, I've got the kids". (So glad I chose to speak to the crazy pregnant girl 5 years ago who decided to come to church in labor, and sit next to me!!) To the best Elevation small group ever~ thank you for all your support and prayers; and for cleaning my kitchen every Tuesday night so Donnie didn't have to. And especially to Brandon & Rachel for taking the boys for an afternoon of fun; and Colleen for coming over to watch the kids and clean my house.

I am so humbled as I sit here reminded of the amazing friends & family the Lord has blessed us with. Thank you doesn't seem like enough, but I hope you all know how much we appreciate each and every one of you.

The truth comes out

Caleb: "Hey Mommy, do we have butter?"
Me: "Um, yes"
Caleb: "Do we have scotch?"
Me: "Excuse me?" Have I really sent you over the edge at the age of three?
Caleb: "I want to make butterscotch pudding!"
Me: (with a sigh of relief) "Oh!" of course....

Easter follow-up

Well Donnie already blogged about the best part of Easter in the last post. And I'm glad, because I couldn't have put it into words like he did. But we had some other fun activities that begun earlier in the week that led up to Sunday. An Easter party with our homeschooling buddies started off the celebration, complete with an Easter lesson (illustrated with resurrection rolls), and of course an egg hunt. Here is a snippet of our deep conversation about the death and resurrection of Christ as we wrapped marshmallows (Christ) in crescent rolls (linen cloth) and placed them in the oven (the tomb). The marshmallow melts, so that when they break them open, it's empty - Christ is risen!

"So after Jesus died and they wrapped him in cloth, where did they put him?"

"In the oven!"

"Ok, let's open our resurrection rolls. What do you notice?"

"Jesus melted!"

Later that day the kids received their Easter baskets from Grammie and Granddad. Ella loved her new sunglasses and Tinkerbell bowl.

Easter morning...Ella enjoys torturing me by NOT smiling every time I get out the camera.

Sunday evening we were invited by our sweet friends, the Fairs, to their house for dinner and some more egg hunting...oh and four-wheel riding, of course.

Easter - Elevation style

What do you get when you mix the supernatural power and blessing of God with an army of volunteers willing to work around the clock, a pastor with an intense focus on reaching the lost and an amazingly talented staff that is equally committed to that vision?

Something like this:




More than 11,000 in attendance. 700+ decisions for Christ. Over 18,000 food/clothing/toy items donated for our local outreach partners. The greatest worship experience I have ever been a part of. And the church is only 4 years old. So where do you go from here? Well, apparently you reserve Bank of America stadium for Easter 2015. This is your official save the date.

I have to admit that about 1/2 way through the service I stopped singing and just looked around. All at once a flood of thoughts filled my mind: I thought about how hard it has been to be so far from family and how it didn't make any sense for us to move to Charlotte 6 years ago. How I used to immediately dismiss the thought of attending "big" churches because they had to be impersonal and were probably all about money. I thought about how much closer we could be to being completely out of debt if we didn't give sacrificially to support this church and about how much more time I would have (to waste, most likely) if we didn't volunteer or participate in a small group. As I was panning around the arena processing these thoughts and taking in all those people united under one vision praising the same God that had saved them just like He did me, it was as if God asked me, "So is it worth it?" It wrecked me inside and I just started crying. I felt humbled to be standing there in the presence of God being blessed so intensely by this experience and indescribably grateful that God has orchestrated this opportunity into my life. I was in awe of God's power.

Thank you Jesus for giving your life to save mine. Thank you God for pursuing me even when I run away. Thank you Pastor Steven and Elevation church for your commitment to excellence and your unrelenting pursuit of the city of Charlotte for Christ. I am so blessed to call Elevation Church my church.