Summer's High Five (so far)

It is summer! Hallelujah! I say that now, because I know that in about 5 minutes I'm going to be cutting my way through the humidity to get to my car everyday.  But until then... yay summer! We enjoyed spending Memorial Day at a family friend's pool with our team.  It was a blast.  Our pace of life has slowed down slightly and with that has come time to enjoy the little things in life.  Sno-balls, fans blowing my hair, and Harper's giggles.  Speaking of, there are all kinds of new things coming out of this child. Personality, opinions, and words galore.  Since I've slowed down, I've noticed a lot more of the sounds that I hear on a regular basis. One of the perks, I guess. And in the High Five Friday fashion, here are the top five things I hear everyday.

5. Barking. Ruby is a good guard dog and we have a fairly busy house, so she barks on the regular.  Thankfully, Harper has an immunity to this, I guess since she's heard it beginning in the womb.  She either gets excited about whatever Ruby is excited about or sleeps through it.  (but Ruby really isn't that bad of a barker, just so we're clear)

4. The ding-ding-diiiiiiiing of the microwave as I warm my coffee up 12 times.  Y'all, I can't drink a cup of coffee before it gets cold.  It's like a mental block or something.

3. The rattling of the condiments in the refrigerator door. Because it has super suction abilities and I have to literally put my entire body weight into the pulling motion sometimes.  It's weird, but it's kind of like a game.  Will I be able to open the door?  How many condiments will fall out?  How important is this milk?

2. A loud crash followed by innumerable Uh Ohs.  Harper, of course.  I dropped my cup on purpose, uh oh.  I threw your keys, uh oh.  I pushed everything off the coffee table, uh oh. And sometimes she just says it because she can.

1. DADADADA. Yelled, sometimes screeched, by Harper in extreme excitement. Most of the time, he's not even in the room. Never mama...

Griffin life is fun and now you have a little taste of it.

Abigail

A Very Good Place to Start

Let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? This route will take us way back to the beginning of this whole adventure.  Not to the 80's and 90's, which are arguably the best decades there ever were, but to 2009. The fall to be exact.

The question was, "would you be interested in planting a church in Baton Rouge?" My answer was, "no."  Simple question, simple answer.  Thankfully, Jake's answer was somewhere closer to yes and we agreed to pray about it.  I could have given you a long list as to why it was not for me, the least of which was that it wasn't glamorous enough (I knew so little back then...).  But since I had agreed to PRAY about it, I put my feelings aside and listened to Someone who is much smarter and more gracious than I am.  Consistently, Jake and I both felt like God was asking us a counter-question to our own.

Why not?

I came up with an even longer list of replies.

Because I've never even been to Louisiana.
Because I like Waco.
Because, I don't know about you, but I'm only 22!
Because I've only been married for a year and a half.
Because someone else would be so much better at it.
Because I'm not gifted enough.
Because I don't know if I'm ready.

And because God is gracious, He met me in those questions.  You see, those weren't really answers to God's questions; they were more questions for him.

Am I strong enough?
Am I able to do what you've called me to do?
Do you really want me to be only Jesus some people in Baton Rouge might ever see?

And He answered (again!) with a question.

Will you trust me?

If I'm being honest, I wanted to say no.  When I have about 2.1 million reasons to say no and one reason to say yes, it is a battle for me to feel confident. But that one reason to say yes was the Creator of the universe inviting us into an adventure with Him. I'd say that's the trump card of all trump cards.  

Sometimes, when I feel vulnerable and like my shortcomings will be on display, I still feel like saying no.  But it's in those moments that I try to remember the invitation God is giving me.

He is asking me to come and be weak so that He can be strong.
He is asking me to have a morsel of faith so that He can move mountains.
He is asking me to lay down a seemingly insignificant life so that the most important Person in the world can be glorified.
He is asking me to rest in His arms and leave the heavy lifting to Him.
He is asking me to leave my questions behind and commune with the one who is the Answer.

How can I say no to that?

A Kentucky Derby First Birthday

When I started looking for ideas for Harper's first birthday party, I was overwhelmed with the amount of cute themes. Make paper roses, they said.   Order a polka dot cake from this bakery, screamed the crowd. I mean, I'm just glad there wasn't Pinterest when I got married or I might have gone insane.

Well, I'm not super crafty (and I'm not rolling in the dough either) so my saving grace was the simplicity of a Derby-themed party (and the fact that Harper won't remember whether or not there were paper roses...).  We asked people to dress their Derby best and had the traditional spread of Hot Browns, Derby pies, and mint julep cupcakes. The extent of my craftiness was spray-painting plastic horses and making Oreo blue ribbon favors. Which, for the record, wouldn't have happened without my mom and I will never do again.  I think the kid really enjoyed the cake herself and everyone looked smashing! Here are some beautiful photographs taken by our talented friend Rebecca Guidry (thanks so much!!!).

same expression...

not interested in presents at all!

just a horse and his jockey

finally realizing she loves cake!

It was so fun to celebrate our little girl and a good excuse to dress up! Thanks to everyone who helped make Harper's first birthday an event to remember (for us anyway...)!

Abigail