It's a...

Sweet little boy! I still can't believe it! I thought for sure we were having a girl, but this little one for sure has boy parts! This was such an emotional day and time (well, at least for me!). To be able to see this sweet (well, HE hasn't been so sweet, but I am sure he will be) little boy all curled up and to be able to see his features, feet, nose, ear, hands and boy part :) was amazing. Everything looks good which I am so thankful for. We are not promised anything in this life other than the grace and love of our Savior so to have everything to be going normally is such a relief and blessing. We have so many awesome pictures, but here are just a few!

His daddy's child with his hand in his mouth!

Looking straight at us!

Precious little feet

How in the world can this be comfortable?

Caleb Tucker Brooks

Upate..

I know it has been forever and that seems to be the theme of how I start these blogs. I admittingly just suck at blogging, but I promise I try! Jermile kept saying he was going to update it on his trip to Daytona with the youth group at church so I really can say I was waiting on him to do that! Well, so much to say and so many things have been learned over the past few months. God has truly shown me the love of a wonderful Godly man. I have been sick really since we have been married, in and out of the hospital, not able to eat, blah, blah, blah and Jermile has been so patient and taken such good care of me. He spent about 5 nights layed out on a hard "chair" in the hospital, has been patient with me being worthless and has just loved me unconditionally. God has also taught me that He does not have to explain Himself to us! I have prayed for healing for so long and have really been to the point of begging and crying out to Him that He would just take the pain away. Well, His plans have been different and He has taught me that healing at times is not what He wants. He wants us to glorify Him through pain and circumstances that may seem overwhelming to us. It took me a little bit to even come close to grasping why He chooses pain to show His glory. Paul begged for the thorn to be taken out of his side and God had different intentions. "Each time He said, 'My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.' So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me." 2 Cor. 12:9 I have read this verse over and over and it has never meant to me what it does now. Our pastor is going through a sermon series called "Five Lies of the Devil" and the first lie we focused on was "God will never give us more than we can handle." How many times have we said this to each other as encouraging words. Well, it is a lie! God often gives us more than we can handle to stop us from boasting and throw us into Himself. He wants us to get to the point of saying, "Lord, I can't handle this. This situation is bigger than me." We don't have to figure things out, we just have to look to Him.

Ok, well that was my sermon! And now on to other news! We are PREGNANT! What??? Yes, we are 14 weeks, due March 10. This has been a little overwhelming, but I am so thankful. I have finally been able to start eating, which is great. I have been so worried that this precious little one is starving! But, apparently, it will get whatever it needs! My body no longer cares about me! There is something greater to take care of! We went to Auburn last weekend and it was so great to see family and friends. This is the only picture we took all weekend. I forgot my camera! My sweet mom made sure she cooked things I could eat and honestly, it was my turn around weekend! Something in the air at Auburn! Sorry so long, but thats what happens when you don't update a blog in forever!

Honeymoon!

I know it is a month later, but so much has happened in the last month or so. Our friends Jonathan and Bailey had their precious baby boy on July 12. We welcomed Emrick Scott into the world and he is adorable! Jermile's cousin Cory who was in the wedding and his wife, Mandy had their twins, Cayson and Collin, just a week before. It has been baby mania around here! Jermile is in Daytona right now with the youth group from our church and has been gone since early Monday morning (2am). I hate being here without him. I miss him like crazy and am so ready for Friday to get here and for him to be home. Please just pray for all the students who gave their lives to Christ over the week. Pray that the seeds planted in their hearts would grow and they would get connected with other believers. We are celebrating Jermile's 30th birthday this weekend and I will post pictures of that soon! Anyways, the honeymoon was so much fun. We just had a great time turning off our cell phones and enjoying just a get away. The resort we stayed at was beautiful, had 17 pools and lots to do on site. We enjoyed the pools and being lazy! We spent one day at Islands of Adventure and Universal and one day was enough! The food was awesome, weather was great and the company was amazing!

Our first night, we went to Fleming's and it was delicious!

One night we went to Emeril's which was absolutely wonderful. Holy cow! It was so good!

We waited forever for this "ride." 3D Shrek

I don't know if you can tell, but we are DRENCHED! It was so hot, so this felt so good, but we got so wet!

We went to Cocoa Beach one day and ate at this cute little restaurant on the beach.

Just Married!!

It has been a while since I have posted and I am so excited to really and truly be getting back into the blogging world.  As I sat and thought about what to write and exactly how to describe the most exciting time during both of our lives, I am humbled to think about how many amazing things have happened over the last several weeks.  Some of those things were trying and difficult but led to moments of miracles and revelations of God's perfect timing and faithfulness.  We are also humbled to look through these pictures and see everyone that came together to support and celebrate with us and to make our day all that it was.  I mean, I know it was our wedding, but it was the best wedding I have ever been to!  Holy cow, we both so felt the Holy Spirit there and even after an hour rain delay had the best day ever.  God is so good and showed His sweet spirit in sending an all out downpour.  I mean, this was no afternoon shower. This monsoon came about 30 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start and did not look like it would let up for about a week.  Thanks to everyone who stood the rain and stayed to celebrate with us!  It was so hard to include everyone in these pictures, but you are all so wonderful and truly made our wedding week more than we could have ever imagined.  

My sweet friends celebrating my last few days as a single woman!

Em and me

Bridesmaid Luncheon

Rehearsal

Ok, can I just stop here for a moment and say this man, Donald Spann was meant to be a wedding coordinator.  Donald and Jonathan totally took care of my love and I have never seen someone take care of so many things at once.  All my mom kept saying the week after the wedding was "that Donald."  That's it!  That sums it up.  From now on, I will just shake my head in awe and say, "that Donald!"  All of his groomsmen were absolutely wonderful and I can't tell you how many times I heard what a great group of guys we had standing up there with us.  You are each so special and it was an honor to have you there with us.

My precious ladies.  Well, except Janet!  Don't worry JanTay, you are represented all over this blog.  Now, I really did try not to be a high maintenance bride.  Really, I tried!  For the most part, I think I was ok, but I could not have made it through the day without my girls taking care of me!  We went back and looked at some of the video and all day, my sweet girls are taking care of things I didn't even know they were taking care of.  

Seeing Sam for the first time

And we are in a rain delay!  Wedding Coordinator (Donald) and Jermile arriving!

Waiting out the rain delay with my beautiful bridesmaids and MOB!

I have always looked at the groom when the bride is walking down the aisle, but to see my groom bawling as I walked toward him was enough to make me want to run to him.  The precious love of my life was so servant hearted that day as he is everyday.  He continued to tell my girls to let me know he would wait as long as I wanted (for the rain to stop).  Thank you Lord for bringing us where you have and blessing me with this incredible Godly man.  

Have you ever seen a minister GET DOWN at a wedding?  When I say "get down" I mean this man was all over the dance floor.  When we watched the video I don't think I have ever seen Jermile laugh so hard.  Kendall, thank you for the mentor you are to so many and for making our process, ceremony and day so special.  

The Mr. and Mrs. Brooks!

My bible study girls from Auburn

My precious little girls.  Well, not technically mine, but I love them like they are.  These are Jermile's cousin Detrick and his wife Lindsay's little girls and they handed out programs for us.  They are adorable and adored!

Arriving at the reception in our orange golf cart!  Go Tigers!  (Auburn and Clemson)

The first dance...

So, Andrea and Adam took time to teach us the shag to Stand By Me!  Thank you so much!   

Of course we had to add a little surprise!  We couldn't just do the same ole boring first dance, now could we?  Jermile and I learned the Superman a few days before the wedding, via Youtube.  I wish this picture gave a better representation of everyone's reaction, because it was priceless!  The video is awesome and we watched it over and over.  

I think we both cried the entire way through this!  

Jermile made his sweet mama cry!  His auntie had to bring out tissues, one to wipe off Jermile's head that was full of sweat and the other to wipe off Mrs. Jerri's tears!  It was so sweet!  

Having fun on the dancefloor!

Detrick was all over the floor (with Kendall) all night!  It was awesome and I had so many people tell me they needed to take dance lessons from him!  Yes, this is father of those two little precious girls, Ava and Layla (and Chloe, not pictured!)

The cake was delicious!  We didn't get any in our to go basket and we were so disappointed!  

My sweet and handsome brothers, Adam, Josh and Ryan

My beautiful sister, Tiffany

I know this was a long blog and really, our entire wedding book, but all these pictures cannot even capture the feeling of that day for us.  It has been such a long road and we have truly learned that what God has joined together, no man can separate (Mark 10:9).  We will leave you with the scripture from the wedding and again want to thank everyone that joined us to make our wedding day so special.  We love you!  

"He has made everything appropriate in its time.  He has also put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end...And I know that whatever God does is final.  Nothing can be added to it or taken from it.  God's purpose in this is that people should fear Him.  Whatever exists today and whatever will exist in the future has already existed in the past.  For God calls each event back in its turn."  Ecclesiastes 3:11; 14-15

Changes coming!

Well, if you are reading this, you know we have gone private!  We are still downloading pictures from the most amazing weekend ever.  We cannot wait to share our pictures and perspectives from such an emotion filled event in our lives!  Thanks to each of you for making it what you did! We are changing the name of our blog too, so if anyone has any suggestions, send them our way!  Love ya'll!

Prayer Shower

Last weekend some of my dear friends hosted a prayer shower for me and it was such a great time to see people I hadn't seen and also just see the faithfulness of our sweet Lord.  He is so faithful to provide the people in our lives at just the right time and He knows exactly what we need way before we even realize it.  As I looked around the room at everyone sitting around me, it was amazing to see people represented from all parts of my life up until now.  I am so grateful for the blessings of friendship and am overwhelmed and humbled by how good God is.  It makes the things we worry over just seem silly when we try to comprehend the fact that the King of the Universe is madly in love with us.  Despite our crap and stain, He comes and offers unrequited grace and wraps His arms around us.  To know that we are covered in prayer and love as we approach our marriage is a tremendous encouragement.  I cannot believe we are inside two months!  The time has flown so quickly and I know the next two months are going to fly!  I am just so ready to be Mrs. Brooks I can hardly stand it!  

  

Mom and me 

My sweet sweet friends and hostesses!

Love ya'll!

It's still snowing!!

So I know everyone has posted their pictures of their homes and families playing in the snow, and my pictures are just not going to compare, but I am just so excited about this white weather!!! Jermile and I went in to the store this afternoon and came out and the ground was covered in white!  We had a time, along with several others, getting back home, but we made it!  Yota (the Tundra) was good to us and got us home safely!  This is all I've got as far as a home right now...but it's white, so it doesn't matter!  

Other good news..classes have been cancelled tomorrow!  Yeah!  Hopefully all you teachers have the day off!  Wedding planning is going well.  One of my sweet athletes from Auburn is going to sing and we are so excited!  She is definitely going to be the next American Idol so we are so honored she is singing at our wedding.  We are just counting down the days until the big day, but also trying to enjoy this time.  One of my dearest friends just left for Cambodia for a cycling tour raising funds for an organization in Africa fighting child sex slavery, so please pray for them and their bodies as they bike over 300 miles!  Her blog is "Taking Hope 2 Africa" if you want to read more about what they are doing.  Also, please just be praying for this time and the we would soak it up and enjoy it!  Thanks to everyone that is helping to make this time so special for us!