In the Beginning...

Okay...I'll get to the title of the blog and explain myself right off the bat. I'm sure you have heard of the television show, "Raising Hope". If you haven't...what rock have you been hiding under? It is ridiculously funny and just another reason I look forward to Fox's Tuesday night line up (I'm such a Gleek)! Do I love the show? Of course. Did I kinda "barrow" the name for my blog? Sort of. But -- and this is a BIG but -- I can promise you this blog will not be about me raising the child of a serial killer with the assistance of my neurotic parents and crazy grandmother. While that does sound fun, this blog is about my husband, Kevin, and I raising our boys, learning from our mistakes, and relishing in this crazy beautiful life we have been blessed with.

One of my son's pre-school teaches recently told me that my children were the most polite, gentlemanly boys she had ever worked with, and that it gave her a little hope that chivalry is not lost. <Insert a proud Mommy smile HERE>. Now, I was super proud of my boys and even a little proud of Kevin and I. As any parent knows, manners are not easily taught and definitely easy to forget. But this is something that is extremely important in our family. We want to raise HOPE! We want to raise our boys to be rough and tumble, fearless, polite, caring, loving, affectionate, godly men. I know that seems like a lot to ask in our "Me" driven society. It takes a lot of hard work on the part of parents and I am so up for the challenge. And a challenge it's going to be. Because, you see, I cannot ask them to be something that I refuse to be myself. This Momma needs a lot of internal work! This blog is going to be about a lot of things...and that includes transforming my own life into one that follows after Christ and sets the example my children need to see, in order to become the men they are meant to be.

Art Birch said, "Since Jesus highly values children, mothers are his servants when they bless their children for him." I want to be His servant and for my children to learn about life from their parents. Kevin and I have lived a lot...the good, the bad and the ugly. I want to be the one to teach them right from wrong, and the one to teach them about Jesus. Not rely on someone else to do it for me. This is something I have really struggled with over the last few years. 2011 was not the easiest of years for our family, and we decided to make a radical change to our priorities. We put our house up for sale, sold my husband's insurance agency and moved back to Georgia from South Florida. It wasn't an easy decision, but the move has allowed me to become a stay-at-home mommy and part-time photographer and my husband to find the job that he will be genuinely happy doing. This is such a leap of faith, but we have PRAYED endlessly and feel we are following after Jesus! We may seem crazy to most people...that's okay. We're pretty sure we're crazy too! But we are doing our best to follow Christ, and that doesn't always make sense to everyone. We do have a little secret on our side though! We know that God has a plan and he is laying it out as I type this, and that is so comforting and even more exciting!

I have a lot of hope for our future, for my marriage, for my boys, for our jobs and for our dreams! I hope you will join us on this journey!

Seconds Before We Pulled Out of the Driveway in Wellington, FL for the Last Time

The Reason I Breathe

***Disclaimer*** Please excuse the "look" of the blog at the moment. I am certainly not tech savy and anything involving the letters h, t, m, or l in one phrase might as well be Chinese! I am waiting for the most fabulous blog designer EVER (check her out HERE) to open her shop back up and design this one for me. October 1 can't get her fast enough! I have to many ideas floating around, so I wanted to get them out before my head explodes!