Humbled by His grace

Yesterday was the most humbling day of my life. For those who have not already heard, we are in the final stages of interviewing with our church here in Durham. JR has been nominated for the Family Pastor position and as a part of the interview process he had the opportunity to preach during the morning service. I dont think either one of us have ever been so nervous in our lives!! Bethesda has about 450 people that attend and this was his FIRST time preaching. And if that wasnt pressure enough, this was what the members would be going off of for the vote next week. Whew all I can say is... I am so glad God is in control!! JR and I both knew without a doubt that God has called him for just this, and yet we have zero experience in a church and honestly no merit to even have this opportunity- its simply God's grace.

JR had been practicing for weeks and I have never seen him work so hard at something. Even still as of Saturday night when we went to bed, he still did not feel confident in himself being able to communicate this message that God had given him. Praise the Lord for the Holy Spirit because he TOTALLY showed up and JR spoke better than I could have EVER imagined. Tears of joy would not stop streaming down my face as I have never been so proud of him in all my life. In Christ alone, the words came out of his mouth as if he had been preaching ALL his life. Simply amazing.

I had honestly been crying even before he had started because as I stood beside my groom in the front row of church and realized that this was really happening, I was overwhelmed. So many emotions all in one moment. Nervousness, excitement, joy, humbleness, etc. He was about to stand and preach God's word. We had really been given this opportunity? But God why? We are not worthy of this. Are you sure you want to use US? I know you know who we are... inside and out. Are you SURE? I simply could not believe how good God has been to us. His faithfulness all along the way, not because of who we are, BUT who He is.

Once the service was over, the overflow of love and support from our church family made me speechless. As they congradulated JR for a job well done and gave him the greatest compliment in the world, saying that they would have thought he had been preaching all his life they way that he was able to communicate God's word, I honestly felt as if I was dreaming. AND seeing our dearest friends we have made these last 4 years as well as both sets of my grandparents there to support us- truly grateful. (My Mimi and Potts drove in from TN, but sadly my Potts had to stay at home sick. AND we got a HUGE surprise from Mamaw and Frank as they showed up, coming all the way from Florida!! I have the greatest grandparents in the world. Never is there a moment in my life when they are not there to support.)

Even as I type this I realize you may be thinking, but Lindsey, why are you so shocked? Yall have been at seminary for 4 years now and you knew that JR was getting educated to be in full time ministry. And you are right, I do know that, but seriously... its one thing to dream it and another to see God reveal it right in front of you. ESPECIALLY when neither one of us had any plans of being a pastor/pastor's wife when we started our journey together nearly 12 years ago. But our life together is not about our plans, but simply God's plans for us because He truly knows best.

The church vote will be Easter Sunday. I will of course keep you updated. We thank you in advance for your prayers, knowing that God is in control and no matter what the decision we trust Him knowing the His plans are best.

Celebrating 27 yrs and 10 months!

This was my first year to celebrate a "mommy birthday" and I'll say it definitely made me feel that much older looking at my baby boy and realizing.. "wow! I am a MOM!" But I wouldnt trade it for the world as he was by far my best birthday present. With simple things as him smiling at me, or laughing at me doing something crazy, or leaning in for a kiss- it was priceless!!


We went to Kanki as a family to celebrate that night and it was Griffin's first experience at a Japanese steakhouse. He was amazed by all the fires on the grills and constant action going on, and it was a long dinner which he did very well staying up past his bedtime!

JR and I had went on a birthday date the night before to do a little social dancing. We learned the Waltz. I LOVED it!

And on top of all of that.... I got to celebrate 10 months of this precious boy today!!!

Thankful for my sweet Poppa!

My heart is saddened today to say goodbye to my sweet Poppa who passed away late last night. My family was very blessed with a father, grandfather, great-grandfather to me, and even great-great-grandfather to Griffin! He brought so much joy, laughter and pure sweetness to our family and we will surely miss him. I am so grateful for the 90 years of his life he was blessed with and thus we were blessed having him in our lives. I rejoice now in knowing that he is with Jesus for all of eternity and I will one day see him again. I know he is so excited to be reunited with his bride :)

I love you Pop!!!

Poppa and JR- Thanksgiving 08

Thanksgiving 08


Pop and all his great and great great grandkids- Thanksgiving 09

5 generations

Griffin and I with Pop at our favorite place to meet- The Cracker Barrel :)

The first and only time Poppa held Griffin-Aug 09

Happy birthday Daddy and 9 months Griffin

Another year to celebrate JR.. and quite the year we have had. He is now both a Daddy and a graduate and as always a wonderful husband TOO :)

We celebrated Sunday with our church family and had other birthdays to celebrate too! Trey, Jacob and Ashley are like family to us and we were so excited to all get to celebrate together!!!

On JR's actual birthday, Griffin and I went to his office to have lunch with him and celebrate with a cake! JR commented that being a Daddy on his birthday is the best :)

All he wanted was a date night with his wife so we were so thankful to get a night with just the two of us! We went to downtown Durham to try something new and ate a wonderful dinner and then played pool... he wanted to "do something besides just eat" ha.

Happy 28th birthday sweetie :)

Griffin is now 9 months old and we simply cannot believe how big he is. A little man for sure! As always check out what he is into each day at http://www.griffinjonah.blogspot.com/

Its Graduation Day!!!

I am SO SO SO SO SO SO SO proud of my husband! He finally did it and we are at graduation day. Ahhh... the relief and anticipation of this day ha! 3 1/2 years of hard work has paid off!!! Pictures to come :)

New Girlfriends

I have been blessed with many new girlfriends at our new church and I just wanted to take the time to thank God for them! Last night we had a Christmas party get together at Moes and had a blast. I cherish our girl time :)

Saying Dada and Crawling!

Gosh I have definitely neglected this blog while trying to stay updated on Griffin's! Sorry about that ha! Make sure you check his out because it is actually the more updated one http://www.griffinjonah.blogspot.com/

In the mean time I just wanted to update on our growing boy! He is 7 1/2 months old and growing like a weed. Im guessing he weighs about 19-20 lbs. He is quite the stinker these days, ALL over the place scooting around and being a blabber mouth too! He eats 3 meals a day like a champ. His favorites are bananas and sweet potatoes. He loves to play with his toys and most of all say "Dadadadada". Granted he has no idea what he is saying, this has been a new thing to hear around the house this last week.

He keeps us entertained that is for sure! Hope the blogging world is doing well and again catch us on Griffin's blog. I honestly doubt anyone still checks this one I have been so awful :)

Mimi and Potts came to visit.. and to SPOIL Griffin!

We were so excited to have Mimi and Potts come and visit us this past weekend. It was Mimi's birthday on Saturday so we celebrated when they got in town with dinner and a birthday cake! They immediately went to spoiling Griffin.. imagine that :)

They read him his bedtime stories and also rocked him to sleep every night

Mimi is full of laughter and it was so sweet because everytime she laughed Griffin would just look at her and laugh back ha!

Griffin thought Potts was the greatest too. They had so much fun together and I loved watching it :)

We went to Babies R Us and Griffin was SO spoiled. I am not sure who loved it more though, those that got spoiled or those that were doing the spoiling :)

Here is the toy that Griffin got. We were looking for stuff for Christmas but he loved this driving toy so much that Mimi just couldnt make him put it back on the shelf.

Potts loved his snuggle time!

We went to the pumpkin patch together too!

Thank you for the visit and please come back soon!

We love you!!!

Our niece is here!!!

Olivia Ruth Isham

born oct 14th 2009 @ 11:24 a.m

8lbs 3 ounces and 19 inches long

Aunt Lindsey, Uncle JR and cousin Griffin are SOO excited and cant wait to meet you precious girl :)

Griffin's first experience of Good ole Rocky Top!

We had a wonderful trip back to Tennessee last weekend! It was very special because we got to take Griffin onto UT's campus for the first time so he could experience gameday at a tailgate in big orange country. We had tons of college friends join us and so he was able to meet them too! It was a very long day Saturday as we went to tailgate at 12:30 and then the game wasnt until 7:45. It was slightly chilly and the wind was crazy, but Griffin was such a trooper!!! Cici and Pipper came up to tailgate with us and they took Griffin back home with them so JR and I could go to the game. I dont know who was more excited, us being able to go to our first game in 2 years, or them because it was their first time watching him :) As you can see in some of the first pictures, VDiddy was trying to tell Grififn to cheer for Auburn instead, and he would have been better off since they did win. Oh well.. we still had a blast!!!



Sunday we had another big day of visiting family. Griffin has grown so much since the last time we were in 2 months ago in August. He also has so many new tricks to show off ha! Sitting up, playing with toys, babbling, eating cereal, swinging, and just being Mr. Personality! It was so great to see him interact with everyone.



We were lucky enough to make it a little longer weekend and didnt have to go back until Monday. We spent the afternoon waiting to see if our neice Olivia was going to come but sadly she decided she needed to wait. We did get to let Tristan and Griffin play together though. It was really the first time they could really interact since Griffin was never really old enough before. Tristan is so sweet to him, always wanting to hug and kiss him. One funny thing was he was trying to throw the ball with Griffin and accidentally threw it right at Griffin's head ha! Oh boys :)



We cant wait to go back again for Thanksgiving! Who knows what fun things Griffin will be doing by then!!! With so many pictures I decided to just do a montage so ENJOY!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com