Happy Birthday Sweet Buddy!

Aiden,

Today you turn one year old!  I cannot imagine what my life was like before you came along.  I have to tell you that for a little while; you were nicknamed “the screamer.”  And man, did you scream!  But what is crazy, is that I forget what those days were like.  You have such a happy little personality and bring a smile to my face all the time!  You laugh all the time, you love Beasley and love to give her kisses, and you love your big brother!  You will follow him wherever he goes…you can’t get to him quickly enough.  He can make you laugh simply by looking at you. Your daddy can bring a quick smile to your face too.  You love when he is in the room.  You reach for him if he is close.  Kind of hurts my feelings! You give full open mouth kisses and I love it!  You can say bye, bye, thank you, more and car.  You know who everyone is by name.  

I pray you will know the Lord at a young age and know the purposes He has for you.  I pray you will be a follower of Christ and a leader of men.  I pray your personality would develop in a way that would bring glory to your Savior.  It brings me such joy to know that the Lord knows you so intimately…He knows the hairs on your head and loves you so much more than I am ever capable of loving you.  He has great plans for your life.  I pray you would always have a sense of who He has made you to be.  I pray you will move in your gifts and your path would become clear.  May you recognize your complete dependence on Jesus, walk closely with Him and not miss out on anything He has for you.  I pray for a special touch from the Holy Spirit on your life. 

I pray your daddy and I will model a walk of obedience to the Lord in our home.  I pray, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we show you grace, forgiveness and unconditional love.  I hope that we love you in a way that tangibly shows you how much Jesus loves you and longs for you.  I love you more than you could ever know and am so thankful to be your mom. 

May God’s favor always be on you.

Love,

Mom 

Rancho San Juan Bosco

This blog is mainly so that I do not forget all God taught me while spending a week at this amazing ministry in Tecate, México.  I had such reservations about going and really spent the first couple of days wishing to be back home with my family.  I missed Jermile and the boys so much that my heart was closed off to what God was trying to teach me.  But, usually when we "fight" with the Savior of the world, He wins!  So, after this battle, I just said, "ok, Lord, I am here so I might as well learn something, right?"  I am so thankful to have a Savior that is both gracious and patient with me, because He truly opened my heart to so many things in my remaining days in Tecate.  This was my first experience at an orphanage.  In the years I have done missions I have never had the opportunity to see what I saw this past week.  I saw people's faith that Jesus would completely provide for their needs and the needs of 40+ kids.  This is the kind of faith the moves mountains!  I saw kids that had been rejected by people they were supposed to love them unconditionally and provide for them.  I saw a place that did it's absolute best to parent, teach and love on these amazing kids, each with their own story.
Through this week, I have learned that God gives us a story and it is to be used for His glory.  He doesn't miss a thing.  He doesn't overlook anyone.  I am special to Him. You are special to Him.  I learned that yes, my heart should break for kids that have been rejected and are without parents.  But, shouldn't my heart break even more for those that do not know Jesus?  That should be sadder to me, but sometimes, it isn't.  I pray to have a heart for the lost and listen to God's direction when He places those people in my path.  And that is one of the biggest things He taught me...He will direct me if I ask.  I need to be paying attention to the answer.  And when He does the unimaginable, I need to give Him the glory for it.  And practically, I learned that my kids do not ALWAYS have to have mom around!  While I missed them terribly, I know they were loved on and well taken care of, even without me around!

For mom...(me)

So, this is more for me because I am not doing a great job of keeping up with milestones, etc for the boys so am forcing myself to sit down and do it.  I love watching their little personalities...how different they are and alike at the same time.  So here goes:
Caleb:
Smart as a whip...he can recognize someone's car wherever we are.  We can be driving and he sees a car that looks like daddy's or mine, or ANYONE's car he has ever seen and says, "Mommy, that is like _______'s car!" We pulled up in our driveway today and our neighbor's mom's car was parked and he said, "mommy, that's Mrs. Meg's mom's car."  Seriously?
He loves his brother, but does not love to share with him.
He loves cheese, milk, cereal, hummus, spaghetti, "chewies," and nothing else.
He loves to play with cars, legos, loves to read books over and over, loves the pool, loves to be outside and LOVES anything Disney.
His vocabulary is so expansive and he is very articulate with his words (not bragging but he is pretty fantastic!)
He knows stores by what we buy there...the milk and egg store, the cereal store, etc.
He asks Jermile all the time when he gets home from work, "daddy are you staying for a long time?"-he loves when daddy is home :)
He categorizes people as little people (kids) or big people (adults)...hard to tell a "larger" person what he means when he calls them big :/

Aiden:
He is crawling (army style) around everywhere.  He is hard to contain!
He adores Caleb and Beasley and will follow them anywhere.
When he laughs, it melts my heart!  Caleb can make him laugh like no one else can.
He has 4 teeth...both upper/bottom front 2!
He is a pretty chill little guy for the most part, but we have had our phases!
He is starting to pull up to a stand and has really in the 3 weeks been able to sit from crawling and go back to crawling
He is only about 1lb bigger than Caleb was at this age although everyone says he is going to be the big one whatever that means!
He is not very snuggly...meaning, he does not like to be held and never really has.

That is all I can really think of for now.  I love the opportunity to get to be home with them everyday.  It absolutely has its challenges, but I love getting to see everything they are doing and not missing anything.  BUT, Caleb has a gotten a bit whinier since being at home with me.  Yikes.  Thankful for this family!

 Aiden 8 months

 Caleb's last day of preschool

Aiden:"Mommy, um, help!"

Gotta love him

Your child might be OCD if.....

(lining up his hummus and crackers before he can eat them)

Some new born pics!

Our new addition...

Well, we have recently welcomed our precious little boy, Aiden Gaines, into our family since my last post.  Life is drastically changing with 2 boys, but we are getting there!  Caleb has been wonderful and is so loving and concerned over Aiden.  He loves to help any way he can...getting diapers, giving hugs and kisses, "holding" Aiden and really whatever we ask him to do for Aiden, he is eager to do.  So thankful for that.  I still want to make it a regular priority to have Mommy/Caleb dates once a week or where Jermile's schedule permits.  It has been a harder transition for me probably not having the "Caleb time" I was accustomed to having.  But, I love this little guy (Aiden) so much.  I pray these boys grow to be the best of friends and support each other as they get older.  Jermile's schedule is completely insane.  Because this is a public post, I will not say everything I would like to say about it, but for now, I will say he is working way too much to enjoy it.  Pray for him.  Here are some pics of our growing family!

 I love this pic.  It is truly how Caleb is with Aiden.  He could just sit and watch him for however long we would let him...well, or until his hyperactive nature kicks in!

How did we get here?

I have been telling myself I need to write this post for a while now, but not sure if anyone reads this anymore.  I am going to write it for myself so I can look back and remember how faithful God has been and continues to be.  I have also (with much pain) joined the Facebook world, only to keep up with the happenings of all the people we miss so much from Clemson.  I can't believe I am living in Auburn.  God was so clear in His direction to move us here but I still cannot believe I am back to a place I love so much.  Saying that, I am learning more and more that it is not about the place that makes it home, but it is family.  Wherever Jermile and Caleb (and soon to be Aiden) are, that is where I want to be!  Months ago, God began closing so many doors in Clemson, which we took as discouragement at the time and not really understanding what He was doing.  We were trying our best to be financially faithful by stepping away from homes we really wanted and putting offers on homes that would not stretch our budget.  All offers fell through but we needed a home quickly, as we were having to get out of our rental by August.  I continued to ask, "God what are you doing? I know You are leading us somewhere, but where?"  All the while, I thought he was leading us to a specific neighborhood in Clemson.  Some time later, a job opened up at Auburn, but Jermile's first reaction was NO!  He had a great job in Clemson...worked with some amazing people and was surrounded by the community he loved.  To make it short, I saw God completely turn my husband's heart around through His Word and clearly communicated to him through so many other ways, that Auburn, if given the opportunity, was where He wanted us.  WHAT??????  I was baffled that Jermile was coming to me saying he felt led to leave Clemson and move our family to Auburn.  It was such an act of God!  Obviously, it was where God was leading us as we have been here for about a month.  It is a completely different Auburn than what it was when I lived here before.  I have the opportunity to stay at home with the boys, which is something I have wanted since Caleb was born.  I am so thankful to have a husband that listens to the Lord.  Even if it meant we were to stay in Clemson...I completely trust the Jermile listens and hears from the Lord and does what He says.  That brings such a peace to know I am being led by someone who wants nothing more or less than what the Lord wants for his family.

So, a practical update...Caleb started preschool today (see picture below)!  I think he is ready to get around some kids.   As much as I love being with him all day, I know he needs to get away from mama for a bit!  We are getting settled as we are renting the house my parents just bought from me a few months ago.  Funny how things work out, right?  God is leading us to a church that is somewhat similar to our church that we loved dearly in Clemson and I am able to get involved in some ladies' bible studies that are providing childcare.  It has been a hard transition for Jermile, but he can handle just about anything.  Thanks for everyone's encouragement.  We are about 2 weeks away from welcoming our second little boy into the world!  Crazy!  We miss Clemson, friends and family so much but know we are where we are called to be.

 This is our next door neighbor, Ella, who Caleb loves!  Everyday we pull in he asks if we can go see her!  Her little brother, Raleigh had a "tailgate" bday party a few weeks ago.  

  My proud little boy on his first day of preschool.  He was so excited, he didn't even say bye to me!