blessed beyond measure

In 2006, Brandon and I were blessed to be part of a mission trip to Pearlington, Mississippi. Our church had adopted that town after Katrina, and sent down reconstruction teams about every month. We were part of a very large group, half of whom went down for reconstruction, and half of whom went down to put on a Vacation Bible School and Sports Camp for area kids. Brandon and I participated in the VBS/Sports Camp. We were deeply affected seeing the devastation, how widespread and complete it was. Everywhere you looked, not a tree standing, debris, FEMA trailers. You had to see it in person to believe it, and we went a year after Katrina hit. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like during and just after the storm. Utter destruction. But more than the environment, the people stuck with us even more. We met and got to love on about 100 kids through the VBS/Sports Camp programs. They possessed strength and wisdom from surviving the storm - strength and wisdom th...

Here are some more pictures from the beach, from Grammy & Pawpaw's camera. This first set is from an early morning walk our first day on the beach. Trey took off for the ocean as soon as he saw it and enjoyed wading in the waves. Getting used to the sand was a step-by-step ordeal. Once Trey realized he could dig and throw the sand, he was thrilled. Later in the week, Trey and Whitney spent some time building sandcastles together. Or should I say, Whitney spent some time building castles, and Trey immediately destroyed them.

So we had just finished giving Trey a bath on Saturday night, and Brandon says, "He's gotta be a pain at some point, right?" I won't be naive enough to pretend the answer to that question is no, but that really got me thinking of how very much I love my child. I love him so much, that things I never would have thought would be entertaining before, are now the most fun in the world. Watching Elmo's world, walking from room to room in the house, turning a light on and off, collecting rocks and tearing up leaves outside - these things are absolutely fabulous, because I am doing them with Trey. And he likes them. And at the end of every day, when I am absolutely exhausted, it is the best exhausted I have ever felt. I have spent a great deal of my day working to help provide for Trey's physical needs, and the rest of the day I have been playing with him, helping him to learn and develop. Of course we have our moments. Discipline has begun, and it's not go...

There are so many things that your child will do that makes you proud. You get so much joy as you watch them start to enjoy the things that you enjoy. Trey has been experiencing so many new things in the past few months. Vacation was a whole new ball game. One of our first stops was a meal at Sticky Fingers, only the best ribs restaurant in the universe. Honestly, if there was such a thing as aliens, and they ate meat, we would all know because they would eat there. They have about eight different sauces for the ribs including the best, in my opinion, Memphis original. This is not the tangy bbq that many are use to. That would be the Carolina style, which they also have. The Memphis style still has the bbq taste with a hint of sweetness. It is a good smooth flavor. I recommend it highly, but I'll get back to the blog. Trey had the opportunity to try ribs. I tore some small pieces off and put them on his plate. He was unsure of the texture at first, he hasn't eaten a...

Since I stole Brandon's sports camp post earlier, we've decided to each post our own accounts of our trip to the beach. I can't resist a teaser, though: later this week Brandon will tell you a shark story. Last week was vacation, and it was fabulous. This was an old-fashioned family vacation, ones like we used to take when I was a kid. Two condos full of people - by the end of the week we had 14 people total. What a great time spent together, and praise the Lord, I only touched a computer once in 9 days! The week was spent doing all our favorite things. Swimming, laying on the beach, reading, eating, shopping, playing putt-putt, eating, riding go-carts, Brandon and Ashley date night (first date in many, many months), and eating. Not overeating, but delicious restaurant eating every day, and Hot Stacks pancakes for breakfast! We weren't sure how Trey would do with the beach, with sand and waves in the ocean. His feet hit the sand the first time, he pointed at the ...

My wife kind of jumped the gun on me with the sports camp blog below. It is always a thrill to be able to mix two of my passions, God and basketball. It was always a dream of mine to have a camp like this and when our church built the gym, I knew God wanted this to happen. We've been doing it for several years now and I almost believe that the adults have as much, if not more fun, than the kids. I never make much of an effort to recruit workers because the people that have been doing it for years continue to show up and mention how much they enjoy it. Sometimes it is difficult to see "results" when working with young children, but the important thing to remember is that God asks us to plant seeds ( 1 Corinthian 3:6) and He will do the rest. It was a joy to have Trey show up for a short time at sports camp. He seems to enjoy sports so far, which is wonderful. He's happy with a ball of any type, golf, basketball, football, whiffle ball, beach ball....he likes the...

This past weekend Trey briefly attended kids' Sports Camp at church. It was a lot of fun, and he was fascinated with all the kids running around and yelling. Brandon has been leading the camp for several years now, but it had extra meaning for him this year, having his son to help him lead some drills and play a little basketball. Something else interesting happened at Sports Camp. Trey and I weren't there at the time, but I'll describe it as Brandon told it to me. A man came to give a martial arts demonstration on Friday. After seeing the man break some blocks of wood with his arms, Brandon joked with everyone there that he would break a block if he could. The presenter told Brandon he would be able to do it. After a little instruction, Brandon's man instinct kicked in, and he was absolutely determined to do it, even if it meant breaking his elbow. Here is what happened next: And no broken elbow! Brandon kept the two pieces of the block, which are now proudly o...

In a break from updates on Trey, I thought I'd share something. It is no secret that I love to eat. Bread, pasta, mac & cheese, pizza, pancakes, any sweets. Good, fattening stuff and lots of it. And I am a champion at coming up with reasons to eat. "I've had a hard day," or "Dinner didn't taste all that great, I deserve at least something good," or "It's the weekend." Et cetera. I know my body is suffering for it, as is our budget with buying so many groceries each week. But even those things have been trumped by my world-class skill of rationalization. Brandon is the true spiritual leader for our home, constantly praying for the family, acting as a great role model for Trey, living out his faith every day to inspire me. The Lord will occasionally give Brandon an entire sermon that speaks to something going on in his life. A couple of weeks ago, He gave Brandon a sermon for me. It came in the form of a Sunday school lesson, I ...