Wise Nuggets

True gospel-humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself.  ~Timothy Keller

Job never saw why he suffered, but he saw God, and that was enough.  ~Timothy Keller

..."God, who holds your life-breath in His hand and who controls the whole course of your life." ~ Daniel 5:23

 

 

 

Random Augustness

Just dropping a few fun random August pics here that didn't already find themselves in a post... 

I had Anna try a new book series I saw highly recommended, The Cupcake Diaries, and they were an instant win with her.  She cannot get enough of them.

Enjoying some cooler evenings this month.  Fall is gonna be so sweet again.  Always is. Fall is my soul's New Year.

Coming up on TEN YEARS that we've called this place home. Wow. 

Bubble bathing beauty. That grin!

Noah's Lego hoard has been moved back to his room ... just like I knew it would be when I warned them not to move it out to the room at the back of Josh's shed last fall. 😏

Anna had a downer day with a certain friend who isn't as friendly anymore.  It hurts!  Time spent with other friends was a total pick-me-up.  Thank you, Lord, for the timeliness of this.  Praying for more girl friendships to grow this year especially for my girl.

New curtains and color scheme in living room that I AM IN LOVE WITH. 

Anna playing iPad all atangle.  Because of course. 

Sitting in her doll's stroller, hard at work on a card for her teacher, Ms. Doody (Judy). I die at the cuteness!

Her cracking herself up putting on Josh's socks and shoes.  I die some more.

Looking back at her baby pictures when she wasn't mine.  Knowing that she is mine now.  Changes how the pics hit me.  I find myself crying again.  I die a lot lately.  Just wow.

Which is not to say I don't die at the preciousness of my older two babies in this shot, too.  Look how little!  Gosh, they have grown up so much in this fostering season we all just came through.  Noah was 9 there, Anna 7.  

Adoption Day Pics, Part 3

Finally got the last of the adoption day pics from the sweet soul who took and gifted us the whole collection of shots entirely.   You can see the first chunk of pics from Cayte - here.  You can see my amateur iPhone pics from that day - here.  And you can see these newest last few shots following here on this post.  I am so thankful for the ones of us being sworn in, of us with Jennifer, our attorney, even if her eyes ARE closed (dang it!), and finally the handful of shots as a family.  If I am lucky, I will find a way for one of them to be used for our Christmas cards this year, saving us another photo session. Ha!

 

 

 

 

 

Announced

We opted not to have any sort of party for the adoption.  But we DID do adoption announcements this month and it made our hearts smile to do so.  It also made our hearts smile to hear from all the hearts smiling upon receiving one.  Joy multiplied!

Also official, is the fact that along with her new birth certificate, we now have her new social security card with a brand spanking new number, thankyouverymuch.  Also, also official, is that her new name has been finally updated with insurance, so now we are free to update her name all over town at doctors and pharmacies and registrations and school (which we already did - ha!) and church (which was the first place we updated her name and it was JOY to do so). 

There's not a shred of Carr hanging onto her/us now.  We are not a foster family or a custodial placement.  We are just plain Brown Party of Five. Thank you, Lord!

Summer's Last Swim

We had a one last chunk of pool punches to redeem, so redeem them we did for a nice hot Saturday outing.  Not a moment too soon, too, because Lasa had just finished her 10 day antibiotic round for ear infection (yes, another ear infection alreadyyyyy 😩).  And y'all, that girl has gotten so much stronger in the pool from where she was at the start of summer.  So wild happy, fearless, and reckless then, to now with such control and ease and more measured excitement.  We had such a fun time letting her wander farther from us in the water this time.  Next summer, we plan to pick up another crazy big backyard pool which will be perfect timing for her to fully learn to swim.  It will be nice to be able to relax again at a pool.  Excited for that!

Concession stand food for dinner, another Star Wars Movie night, and we all slept hard after this.

Belated 16th Anniversary

July was a swirl of so much .. just so much going on on so many levels ... that we postponed celebrating our anniversary that came and went on the 27th.  The Family Brown is officially 16!  Another year of wow.

We finally got out for a date this weekend, on a Sunday afternoon, just our speed.  Cathy kept the kids and we headed out to shop, wander in Nashville, and have dinner.  We did another year of our traditional "buy something new for the house" anniversary thing - this time being new curtains for the living room.  We have had the same red striped curtains for over 12 years.  The upgrade to a blue is refreshing for us.  We picked out some panels and some new couch pillows.  The final choice is still a work in process, though, as I wait to see if my eye likes the shade we picked or not.  Regardless, it was so enjoyable to wander and shop together sans kiddos.  Then Josh drove me all over Nashville so I could try to get better acquainted with all the streets and destinations that otherwise make me so anxious when I am driving around on my own.  I think this easy Nashville wandering really helped!  I was able to connect a number of dots and make better heads and tails of layouts and directions.  And it's about time - we have been here almost 10 years now!!  After that, we had dinner at a new-to-us place that came highly recommended - Butchertown Hall, a tex-mex influenced American restaurant (and beer garden, apparently, not that I know anything about that). 

 

Dinner was so flippin' delicious, I am still talking about it two days later.  I got street tacos - brisket, pork, and chicken ... and ohmygoodness I should have just gotten the brisket.  It was amazing.  Josh got a brisket burger.  The queso was the best I've ever had, too.  I didn't have a margarita for Happy Hour, but I should have!  My handsome date BEFORE he dribbled delicious food on his shirt.  HA!

Our anniversaries are about a low-key as you can get. And it totally suits us ... 16 years and counting! Maybe by our 20th we will do it out big with a trip somewhere.

Last of Summer Stylin'