To God be the glory! Great things He has done!

This morning during my quiet time, I was just overwhelmed with God's provision for us during these last four years of medical school and I felt like I just needed to share with others how faithful He has been to us. Here are just a few of the many ways that God provided for us as we started med school........a wonderful home to live, great neighbors, a job for me where I could impact kids' lives, He helped us sell two cars for a good price and find two more for a good price, God provided people who provided money for Aaron's tuition semester by semester...ALL FOUR YEARS!! (THAT IS AMAZING!!!!!!) and SUCH A BLESSING. God provided people to help us raise money to take a mission trip to Kenya during his first year, we actually raised MORE than we needed and were able to give to others going on the trip.(We needed $6,000 and God provided $8,500) WOW... God provided us with GREAT Christian friends that we could fellowship with and grow with. He provided us with a wonderful church home where we were able to be involved in ministry. He provided us with bible studies to be involved in and we were able to open up our home for ministry. Another huge answered prayer has been in watching Aaron learn, study, take test after test, and be so disciplined with his time and energy. I KNOW God has been enabling him day by day through these past four years. He has enabled him to be able to balance school, church, spending time with me and spending time with friends. He has enabled him to be able to be faithful in attending church and even leading Sunday School for a period of time, while still keeping up with all his studying and learning for school. I KNOW that God has enabled him to do ALL these things, and with such a great attitude. He has enable him to graduate with honors! Thank you Lord for teaching Aaron so much in such a short amount of time and helping him to retain the information and apply it with wisdom. God is so GOOD! And of course, we can't forget our sweet gift He provided for us just 7 months ago, Braelyn Evangelee! We do consider her a true "gift" from the Lord. We wanted a baby so much, and although it was a difficult road at times, God was SO FAITHFUL to us through every step of the way. We are so blessed. And God has provided us with wonderful families who have supported us in so many ways and encouraged us and helped us through these last four years. We are so thankful for them and we love you all dearly. I type all of this to just say "TO GOD BE THE GLORY, GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE" Our prayer is to always give Him the glory for every single thing He provides for us, because we recognize that without Him, we are nothing, and can accomplish nothing. We are dependent on Him to lead us and provide for us, and He has shown Himself SO FAITHFUL to us. These past few months God has been testing my faith through the process of selling our home and looking for a new one in Bristol. Oh, which reminds me, I forgot to mention another HUGE way He provided.....we have a contract on our home here in VA and will be closing May 4th. Thank you Lord for selling our home. So, I have been struggling with this search for a home in Bristol, and I have been discouraged at times, so for me, looking back at all these ways God has provided for us, just encourages me to BELIEVE and TRUST HIM to provide for our needs once again. He is the Creator of all things and owns all the resources in the world, so I don't think providing a home for us in the next two weeks will be too difficult for Him :). I pray that this testimony of God's faithfulness will encourage someone else too.
And of course, I have to include a few pics of Braelyn, now 7 months old! I look forward to sharing with you all soon of how God provided a home for us in Bristol. :)

March Madness in April too

Well, Aaron informed me that for the last two years I have done a post on our blog entitled "march madness".........so, we have definitely experienced March madness, but it is now April. So, needless to say, our lives have been pretty crazy lately. The good news is that we do have a contract on our house as of March 31st!! Praise the Lord. We were praying that we would sell our house by the end of March, and God was so good and sweet to answer our prayers. We plan on closing May 4th. The only problem is that we haven't found a place to live in Bristol yet. We have been to Bristol 3 out of the last 4 weekends!! Whew........we have looked at about 18 houses for sale and just haven't seen one that we felt like was "the one". We are being pretty picky because we would need to resale this house in 3 years after Aaron's residency is over. So now we are pursuing rental places and continuing to keep our eyes open for houses too, and mostly just praying, praying, and praying some more for God to lead us and give us wisdom in this decision. God has increased our faith so much through seeing Him answer prayers and provide for us in so many ways. We are so thankful that He owns all the resources in the world and knows exactly what we need, a lot better than we do. God is so faithful. It is hard not knowing where we will live, and being anxious to move on to the next part of our lives, but God is teaching me about perseverance. Braelyn and I are a little under the weather right now, although she still seems pretty happy. I haven't been sick in a long time, and it really makes me appreciate being healthy. I am hoping we are all better by this weekend. (Clint's wedding and Easter) We will be heading to TN to enjoy time with our families. I have some really funny videos of Braelyn, but I have forgotten how to download them and we've just been busy. But hopefully they will be up here soon. For now, I have a few pics to share. Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

6 months old!!!!!!

Today is Braelyn's 6 month old birthday!! And for her birthday she received a shot in each leg at the doctor's office and had to swallow some other yucky stuff :(......but she is a trooper! She only cries for a second and then she is all better. I took a few shots today, in the little white outfit. And then there will be other pics on here from a while back. She has been on cereal for about a month now, but still needs practice eating with the spoon. Oh, we found out that she weighs 15. 69 pounds and is 25.75 inches long! She is about in the 50th percentile for her age, growing just fine.

I also am including pictures from our trip to TN a couple of weeks ago. It was a GREAT trip! I had so much fun spending time with our families and enjoying some warmer weather (there was 6 inches of snow in VA when I left). We are planning to head back home for Easter and for Clint & Becky's wedding( Aaron's older brother) on the sat before Easter. That will be a fun weekend. Then my sister's baby is due April 28th, so we will be back in town when he arrives. So many exciting things to look forward to, and of course, graduation and moving to Bristol!! So here are some pics, hope you all enjoy.

quick update

Well, sorry it's been almost a month since we've updated. I will be posting some 6 month pics of Braelyn soon, yes, 6 months old this week! She seems to be getting more and more fun the older she gets. She is learning how to drink out of her sippy cup and I think has actually done it correctly a few times. I am planning on starting some veggies and fruits here in the next week or so. That should be exciting. Anyway, we went to Bristol this past weekend for a short stay and drove around just to check out good housing spots and proximity to the hospital. We were very pleased with our trip, even though it was kind of rainy, it wasn't that bad. And Braelyn did great just riding in the car for almost two days. She is such a good baby. Bristol prints out a monthly magazine with all the real estate in it, which was VERY HELPFUL to us. We are still in the process of selling our own home, but have had quite a bit of interest. We are encouraged and just waiting to see what God has planned for us. oh, Aaron is doing cardiology this month. Only a couple of weeks to go, then April, and then he is done!!! Graduation May 30th!! Woohoo! I'm so proud of him. I'm not sure what kind of graduation present could really communicate how proud of him I really am. Hmmm... I guess I should get on that :)

5 month old cutie!

Can you believe she is already 5 months old as of last Wednesday! She is getting so strong and smart! We practice sitting up a lot and she can do it by herself for a few seconds at a time. She is getting tired of her bouncy seat and I think wants to be moving around more....so I'm going to look at a used exersaucer today. We'll see how that goes. She is almost able to roll from her back to her tummy. She gets really close, but hasn't done it yet. Her schedule is going pretty good. She is down to four feedings a day and I am planning on starting cereal hopefully tonight! We'll have pics of that I'm sure. She usually wakes up b/w 8 and 8:30, usually takes two good naps, one morning and one afternoon(averaging 1 and 1/2 to 3 hours each) then she needs a short power nap before her last feeding, but doesn't always get it. Then she goes to bed b/w 8 and 8:30. She sleeps really well through the night most of the time. She cries out sometimes, but usually we just put her pacifier back in and she is good to go. She is making all kinds of crazy sounds and laughs at her Daddy all the time. We are still trying to sell our house. We have one family that is really interested, but must sell their house before they can buy ours. We are praying about whether to buy or rent in Bristol. Hopefully we will be making a trip there soon to just check out everything and see what is available. It is still very cold here. It actually snowed a little bit yesterday morning. I am excited that Spring is just around the corner and I can get outside with Braelyn! I wonder what our next home will be like.....I hope there is a good place to walk like we have here. Aaron will be doing Cardiology next month. And I forgot what he does in April, but that will be his last rotation as a med student!! Woohoo!! I am soooooooooo proud of him! I can't believe he is about to graduate. I know he will be an amazing doctor! I know he is very excited to start earning a paycheck for the work he does also. Thanks for all your prayers. We pray that God will be glorified in the selling of our house and all the many decisions that will be made soon as we move to a new place.

For my Valentine

I just got the random idea to let everyone know how much I love my husband this Valentine's Day Eve! So, we'll say this is part of his gift......

Just a few of many reasons I adore, respect and enjoy loving my husband......

1. His heart for God. This is the first thing that attracted me to him at UT at the BSU. I could tell he had a genuine heart for God and missions and one of my favorite things was watching him lead the praise team on Wed nights for college/career worship. And I thought he was pretty cute too, actually very cute.
2. His voice. I love hearing him sing solos at church. He doesn't do it very often, but God has blessed him with a great voice. Sometimes I ask him to sing to me :), and of course, he does.
3. His funny personality. Anyone who knows Aaron, knows what I'm talking about. You can't be around him very long without laughing.
4. His discipline and leadership. I have been amazed to watch Aaron progress through each year of medical school. He is so good to keep things balanced. Even though med school is very demanding, I never felt neglected. AND...he is graduating with Honors!! The Lord is good to those who seek Him!
5. His perspective on life. Aaron is so good to keep things in perspective with God's view. He has taught me a lot and helped me learn how to change my ways of thinking and reacting to situations.
6. His handsome good looks......did I already mention that?
7. His appreciation and love for me. He does such a good job of showing me love all the time. He helps out around the house without me even asking and tells me how much he appreciates me.
8. His great attitude. I love Aaron's attitude. He just doesn't worry about things and rarely complains about things.
9. And he knows how to cook.....well.
10. He's a GREAT father!! I love to watch him play with Braelyn. He is so sweet to sing to her and play with her, and is not afraid of a dirty diaper! I love him so much!

There are many more reasons I would love to share, but I gotta run now. I thank God so much for such a wonderful gift of a loving, supportive, fun husband. I look forward to seeing what God has planned for us! I love you babe! Happy Valentine's Day!

New Video!!!

Here's our cute little girl laughing at us. She is SO cute. Of course she was laughing really hard and long but toned it down a little once we pulled out the video camera. We are doing well and excited about matching in Family Medicine in Bristol, TN. Please pray for our house to sell. We've had some more interest and we are getting the word out little by little. Thanks for watching!

Bristol for residency!

Hey everyone, thanks for the prayers. We found out that we are heading to Bristol after graduation! We are excited to see what God has planned for us there and excited to be closer to family too. Braelyn was so excited to hear we got Bristol that she requested to wear some Tennessee attire to celebrate. Here are a few shots. Oh, as you can tell, she can't keep her fingers out of her mouth these days. She is such a cutie and so FUN! We are so blessed to have such a great baby!