Defeated

Today is not a good day. As we load the U-Haul, the reality of our situation is weighing down like a giant elephant and crushing our spirits. This homecoming is shaping up to be more bitter than sweet. Quite honestly, we feel defeated and know that we cannot make this journey on our own. God can and will carry us through.

Our Day at Disney

The Castle, in all its glory, did NOT disappoint.

Her excitement on the tram going to Magic Kingdom was contagious!

Trying on "ears"

Briar Rose was the first princess we met.

(For whatever reason, Coco calls her by her name in hiding.)

Belle told Coco she had beautiful, princess hair.

Cinderella was wonderful and took so much time making Coco feel special.

Sebastian got some princess lovin' too and even had lip prints on his cheeks. After a minute or two, Cinderella looked at us and said, " I think he wants to stay with me today." Apparently, she had been giving him verbal cues it was time to go back to Mommy & Daddy but he was just enjoying the lap time. Look out Prince Charming, here comes Sebastian!

Daddy & Coco watching the show on the castle steps.

Silly boy waiting to ride Dumbo

Prince Eric, Sebastian, Ariel & Coco

Coco asked where Melody was and Prince Eric was impressively quick on his feet.

He said she was at school and was coming home afterwards to play with Max.

Sebastian's visit with the Green Army Man was so much fun. We told him that Sebastian called him "Hut Hut" (from the opening credits of one of the movies) so he signed his book accordingly. Hut Hut also thought it was pretty cool Sebastian shared a name with a very famous Disney crab and even drew a picture of one for him.

Anxiously waiting to see Buzz & Woody

Let me say that it was HOT, hot, hot. Extreme heat means extreme sweating and for some, extreme body odor. Unfortunate for us, we were stuck in the hour long Buzz & Woody line behind a man with a serious smell. No one likes stinky things, but Donald has a particularly low tolerance for odors. I just had to capture this moment on camera.

The Toy Story rockstars were totally worth the wait!

The wait was nearly 2 hours and no more Fast Passes were being accepted so Donald didn't get to experience Star Tours. Not all was lost; we did get to see a mini Jedi training show.

"even your desires"

In the midst of our life crumbling, we always have reason to praise. So, I am going to brag on our powerful and perfect God. I was talking to my good friend Kress the other day and she encouraged me with words I'll never forget. She said, "God will meet all of your needs and even your desires." From the moment we learned we were moving to Florida, going to Disney World was top on our to-do list. Neither Donald nor I have ever been and honestly, we were as excited about getting to go as any child I know. However, life happened and we have not been able to go since living here. Coco talks about going to the "castle" at least once a day, seriously, and she thinks that Donald works just so he can make money to take her. It doesn't take a genius to figure that Donald losing his job also meant we lost the chance at Disney; at least for a long while anyway. Here's where God stepped in and did just what Kress said he would do. He gave us one of our desires: a trip to Disney!

Here's how it happened:

A chance encounter at the park a few months ago introduced me to Jessica Kriby and now I am blessed to call her my friend. She and her sister-in-law Carissa, also known as Mary Poppins at Disney World, made our dream come true. Hearing our story of unemployment and abrupt relocation back home, they gave us a free day at Disney World! When I played the voicemail Jessica left telling me we were getting to go, I cried...and screamed...and cried a little more. I feel so humbled, honored and blessed that these 2 ladies showed God's love to me and my family and gave us a day that we will never forget!

P.S. LOTS of pictures will be coming soon!

Here We Go Again....

We are counting down our last week in Florida and living among boxes again. The kids are beyond excited to be going back to Tennessee. (Since we moved Coco contrasts a lot between Florida and Tennessee; it's much easier than saying Covington & Lakewood Ranch so we let her go with it.) Donald and I are both dealing with everything as best we can. It's an emotional roller coaster and some days are better than others. There are blessings all around and I would be remiss to start having a pity party. One blessing is that my parents are living in a house big enough to accomodate 4 extra people and a dog. The plan is to move in with them until Donald finds a job. We don't know where he'll find one and honestly, we don't care. As usual a church song fills my heart and mind when I get anxious about it all: Wherever He Leads I'll Go. Covington, Memphis, Nashville, Timbuktu...we don't care. Okay, here's where I'm going to reveal the crazy in me. There is a teensy, wheensy part of me that thinks its kinda cool I have no idea where we will be living in 3 months. Donald attributes this to the "gypsy in my blood." I attribute this strange anticipation of the unknown to my faith. Claiming our family scripture, Romans 8:28, how can I feel anything but excitement? If I allowed myself to really focus on the reality of our situation, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get out of bed. There is a man in our Community Group here that has unwittingly ministered to me time and time again. He's about 80 years old and a former pastor so he's got wisdom oozing out. He said one day that he believed it was impossible for a Christian to be depressed. I wasn't sure I agreed with him until now. By earthly measure, we have nothing. By heavenly measure, we have everything.

Be Still?

I feel like I'm in the twilight zone. Everything looks and seems normal about life, but nothing really is. I'm terrified this feeling I have is the calm before the storm. Through these last few days of chaos and trying to digest what just happened to our family, I keep hearing God tell me to "be still." Really God, be still? Anyone who knows me at all knows that being still is not one of my strengths. I would sweep the sidewalk if there wasn't anything else to do. So, I'm trying to obey. I'm sincerely doing my best to let my heart and spirit be still. It's so hard when all I want to do is fix this mess. Again and again I am abruptly reminded that there isn't anything I can do to fix this. However, God can (and will!) and my job is to stay out of the way. I shared these thoughts with Donald and headed to work. When I got in the car, Chris Tomlin's song I Lift My Hands came on. If I had to sum up the message of the song it's this: Be still and let faith arise. Had I any doubts God could speak directly through music, they would be gone. God reminded me today that He is right beside me every second of every day and will sustain us through this trial of our life. Being scared and terrified isn't acting out faith. So these next few days I'm going to keep focusing on being still and using this time to let my faith grow. This makes me nervous because I don't think God would tell me to grow my faith in Him if I wasn't about to need it. However, I can honestly say I'm excited to see God show off in our life. And I'm even more excited to give Him ALL the glory for it.

Prayers for The Parrs Please

Dear friends,

I am earnestly asking for your prayers for our family. Inspiration is lacking for eloquent words and there's really no great way to share this. So, I'll keep it short and sweet. Thursday we received news that Donald's company was "restructuring" and as a result, he was laid off. Friday I received news that the bookstore where I work part time is closing, effective August 13th. In a matter of 48 hours, we have become one of the unemployed families the news reports on so much. We have some pretty major plans and decisions to make & a pretty short time frame to make them. The only way I can imagine surviving the next few weeks with any sort of sanity left is to ask my friends to lift our family up to the only One who can make sense of this mess now called our life: our Jesus.

Miss Independence

After bath one night, Donald and I were debating over who was going to blow Coco's hair dry. While were each trying to persuade the other to do it, we suddenly hear the blow dryer turn on. We just looked at each other and laughed. Our little Miss Independence strikes again and puts us in our place. See that beaming look of pride on her face??