Playing Catch Up!

It is amazing how fast time gets away from me. My goal is to post at least one blog a week, but that never seems to happen. So, I am going to spend this week playing catch up on all that has been happening in my world over the last few weeks!

Baby Girl #2
On February 1st, Corey and I found out that we are having our 2nd little girl - Georgia Reese! He was secretly hoping for a little boy, but hey they say that the third time is the charm - so we have another chance! We are both really excited that Riley will have a little sister - we have already taught her to say her name, although it comes out more like JooJoo than Georgia right now, but she has another 4 1/2 months to perfect it!

I can already tell how different things are going to be for the 2nd child, based on how I am with this pregnancy. Last go round, I knew exactly what week and day in my pregnancy I was - now I sometimes I have to check the calendar! Also, as soon as I found out that Riley was a girl, I had registered for everything - bedding and all - within one week. This time, I have barely thought about it! I'll get there soon enough!

Motherwise Bible Study
The first week of February, I started a new Bible Study called Motherwise at Covenant here in Greenville. Can I just say that it is awesome!!! I don't attend Covenant and it has been a great way to meet mothers of all ages and really seek the Lord about how to become a better wife and mother. Apparently there are multiple studies in Motherwise (they did Wisdom for Mothers last fall), but for this semester we are doing the Freedom for Mothers study. It's quite funny because I thought this study was going to be all about learning Biblical parenting skills which would then lead to Freedom!! But, oh how I missed the big picture. Ultimately, Freedom for Mothers is about realizing that nothing we do - work, marriage, parenthood - can be done well apart from Christ. The reason we struggle is because we are trying to do it all ourselves, instead of laying it all at the feet of the only one who can! For the past three weeks I have had several a-ha moments! The first of which was the following: "Jesus did not come to help me be a mom. He came to do it for me" - WOW!!! Now this is where freedom really is!! My prayer is often, "Lord, help me do this" or "Father, help me do that" as if he is my assistant or something!! I should be asking him to fill me so completely that he actually is me!

I am sure there will be much more to share as the study progresses, but for now I will stop there!

Prayer Requests
This week has been one filled with sickess in the Brown household. Last Friday, Riley came down with a 24-hour stomach bug that she then passed along to me! I spent all day Sunday sick on the couch. We thought we were in the clear, but then Corey got sick with the same stuff on Wednesday. Luckily, we each only had it for 24-hours! Once we had that behind us we thought we were in the clear, but now Riley and I both have colds - runny nose and coughing. She has been a champ - handling it better than me!! I won't complain much though - this is the first sickness any of us have had all year!! So, we are just praying for speedy healing!

Also, continue to lift up Corey's search for jobs! He has a lot of open doors (thank you Father for favor), but we need discernment about which one to walk through and when to walk through it!

For now that will be all, but I promise to not let as much time pass before my next post! Blessings until then!