Besides going on her first family vacation this week, Honor had her first taste of baby food. It’s a big milestone! She is a foodie like the rest of the family.
I don’t want Raegan to be lost in the midst of all the excitement surrounding the baby. One way that I reassure her is to involve her with the baby. Showing her how exciting it is to be a big sister, teaching her the great responsibility in being the oldest.
I invited Raegan into this moment by allowing her to feed Honor a few bites. She was thrilled. Excited. And felt included. I then showed her photos of her first time trying foods to connect her.
This is just one way I am balancing having two kids with a big age gap in between. If you have kids with a big gap, what are some ways you are bridging the gap between the two?
Swipe to see a throwback of Raegan and a side by side of the girls!
Our DIY family photos from our trip. Swipe to see this year versus last year.
This time last year we were on vacation. Just found out we were pregnant with Honor. Preparing for our move to Cali.
We came back to the same spot, this time with our sweet new baby, as Cali residents.
It’s amazing to see two promises come to pass in just a year’s time.
From this weekend’s little getaway to San Diego.
I know it can be difficult to discern someone’s true intentions on social media. Sometimes it’s hard to capture your heart in a caption. But when you look at my family, I pray you see Jesus. I pray you see that He truly answers prayers, redeems, restores.
I want you to know that my God is a Redeemer.
For Joshua, He sets the lonely in families. (Psalm 68:6).
For Raegan, He is a father to the fatherless. (Psalm 68:5).
For me, He gently leads those who have young (Isaiah 40:11), and our Maker is Husband and my Redeemer (Isaiah 54:5).
For Honor, He always keeps His promises. (Psalm 145:13).
In every post, I want you to know my God has been mighty kind to me. I want you to trust His kindness towards you, too.
I dare you to trust God to redeem that which was broken and lost and forgotten. Redemption may not look like my story, but I’m excited to see how He will use yours.
[also, at the time these photos were taken, we didn’t know masks were required when lounging at the beach. In the spirit of honoring our government leaders, we will make sure to wear them!].
She’s mastered the first stage of sitting on her own: the “tripod” sit. I can’t believe this time last year I was newly pregnant and now this promise is here making our lives so much fuller ❤️
#challengeaccepted. I love womanhood. I love to see a woman walking with her head a little higher and her back a little straighter because of the encouragement someone poured into her life. Let’s continue to pour courage into one another, to break up with emulation and competition and comparison, and walk alongside one another. To me, that’s powerful womanhood 💥
Thank you for nominating me @j.d_ladyjustice! You’re a voice of encouragement and resilience to me and so many others!
The word “name” appears “more than 1000 times in Scripture and routinely carries with it the idea of power, responsibility, purpose, and authority. A name not only expresses the essence and significance of what is being named but also, when duly authorized, accesses the quality it conveys.” - Tony Evans
Raegan Grace + Honor Grace. May they carry kingdom, grace and honor always.
Left: My hair in a braid out. Right: When I big chopped my hair in 2011.
It’s been a journey, and lots of ups and downs just like with anything else in life - I’ve had lots of haircuts (i.e. I would go for a trim that turned into a cut somehow🤔), fell in love with some great products, let go of some not so great ones, learned to make my own wigs, and even colored my hair for the first and only time in my life. I went natural to train myself to love all of me the way God made me and to break off Euro-centric standards. It’s taken nearly all this time to finally love my hair.
I finally began to treasure my hair about 2 years ago. It was the first time I had time to do so (after years of school, I would just put my hair up and forget about it). I invested in really good products, visited a dermatologist to help my scalp out, and was pretty militant about protective styling. I’ve entrusted my hair to @janasiadaniellehair in NOLA and @kelleytresses in LA, and these women have loved on my hair!
After about 9 years, from big chop to about bra strap length, I am finally treasuring the beauty that was always there. And, it doesn’t matter whether someone wears a sew in, wigs, a blow out, wash and go, twists, buns, fros , braids, whatever. They’re all beautiful, I’m just not using a hairstyle to hide anymore.
🌷Honor is 4 months old!🌷This girl is f i e r c e. She’s hit every milestone weeks (and sometimes months) early. She begins to overtake milestones with a fierce determination that she can already do it. She literally tries to push me and Joshua away so that she can do it herself. In her eyes, she can get up and walk already, even though she’s just in the super early stages of crawling. And don’t let her smiles and laughter fool you — she loves to “wrestle” and rough house lol
She’s a fighter, a warrior baby, just as the Lord said she’d be. She was a fighter in the womb when my body was threatening to deliver early, and she’s a fighter now in believing in herself, defending her own honor. ⚔️
Our strong girl needed a strong name. Here are two verses that Joshua and I relied on for Honor’s name.
________________
“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” Romans 12:10
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‘For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.’ Titus 2:11-14 NIV.
On the blog today: I felt a release from the Lord to share the why and meaning of Honor’s name (and Honor’s newborn photos). I’m sharing for two reasons:
(1) in the hopes that all you expecting mamas out there will call on the Lord to give you peace and direction, to see His heart towards your baby, and to provide fresh perspective towards the holy call of motherhood; and
(2) to encourage you to “live Kingdom” in the midst of a very volatile social climate.
Link in bio!
Shoutout to @camariemcbride for capturing my family of 4!
❤️ God took me and Raegan and gave us Joshua, and then He turned around and gave all of us Honor. This is my beautiful family. They are my gifts and my treasures. ❤️
❤️ Sweet baby giggles to brighten your day ❤️
She’s 16 weeks old. She’s learned to wave, cries “mamamama,” and is getting up on all fours like she wants to crawl. I delight in my children. Honor Grace, what a precious gift!
I truly believe God is using this season to shake us out of a slumber. To give us the clearer 20/20 vision we all cried out for at the beginning of this year. We can no longer do business as usual concerning our neighbors, or ourselves.
As believers, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. This season, many people are learning that they have not loved their Black neighbors well, or even at all. We are even being challenged to love each other well in practicing social distancing and wearing masks, to make decisions for the better good and health of our neighbor.
But I hope this season is showing us the truth about our own selves. Many of us are indeed treating others as themselves — they can’t love their neighbors well because they don’t love themselves well.
You may notice that I don’t post as much. That’s because I want to focus on loving myself well. For me, this looks like giving myself space to breathe and heal in my postpartum season. To place boundaries on social media for a little while. To enjoy and serve my husband and family and friends and church. Having hard conversations and laughing deep belly laughs and harmonizing with my siblings and making stir fry for my mom and dad. To make my husband chuckle and delight in our beautiful children.
I am taking this season to learn and to un/re-learn some things. To make space in my heart for what God is doing. I pray all of our vision is clearer, less clouded and more focused on God and loving well.
❤️ Mambo sauce ❤️ #Home #DMV
🌷 Honor turned 3 months old this week! 🌷
Our giggly, laidback, on-the-move warrior baby. Honor, you’re everything.
Amen.
Honor G. ❤️ You bring our family so much joy.
Happy Father’s Day to my Beloved. He carries fatherhood so well. Someone once told me that our first thoughts of God are shaped by our relationship with our earthly fathers. My girls’ views towards Jesus is hopefully shaped by this:
For Raegan, I believe she will know and carry sonship (daughtership) and redemption well. Joshua adopted Raegan during our first year of marriage. With adoption, she carries a new bloodline, grafted into our family. He loved her so much that he set out to make her his own. He gave her everything he has. Not only that, but Joshua stepped in and “redeemed” her. Joshua taught and showed her these qualities of the Father.
For Honor, I believe she will carry the principle of honor all her life. Joshua demonstrates honor in all he does towards everyone, just as Jesus did.
The father of my children. The man of my prayers. We honor you.
Took these beauties to the ocean a little while ago. It was Honor’s first time seeing the ocean, and our first time enjoying it with her. I love this age — everything is a new experience. It’s all a wonder to her .
It’s crazy how everything loses its wonder as we get older. Not much sparks awe, unfortunately. I want to be like my children — never losing our wonder in even the smallest details and beholding the beauty in the ordinary. God did a perfect job at creating it all, and I don’t want to take that for granted.
Flashback to our first engagement party 3 years ago. 26 and 30 years old. Now we’re married, we got two kids, and I’ll be joining Joshua in the 30 year old club in a few months!
Life came at us fast, but I love us. I am grateful for the journey that brought us to today. More in love. More at peace. More fired up in the things of God. More assured of my anointing as his wife and mother to our Grace girls.
This man is fine as all get out. He’s amazing in every way, and he is my best yes.
#ILoveUs
Besides going on her first family vacation this week, Honor had her first taste of baby food. It’s a big milestone! She is a foodie like the rest of the family.
I don’t want Raegan to be lost in the midst of all the excitement surrounding the baby. One way that I reassure her is to involve her with the baby. Showing her how exciting it is to be a big sister, teaching her the great responsibility in being the oldest.
I invited Raegan into this moment by allowing her to feed Honor a few bites. She was thrilled. Excited. And felt included. I then showed her photos of her first time trying foods to connect her.
This is just one way I am balancing having two kids with a big age gap in between. If you have kids with a big gap, what are some ways you are bridging the gap between the two?
Swipe to see a throwback of Raegan and a side by side of the girls!
Our DIY family photos from our trip. Swipe to see this year versus last year.
This time last year we were on vacation. Just found out we were pregnant with Honor. Preparing for our move to Cali.
We came back to the same spot, this time with our sweet new baby, as Cali residents.
It’s amazing to see two promises come to pass in just a year’s time.
From this weekend’s little getaway to San Diego.
I know it can be difficult to discern someone’s true intentions on social media. Sometimes it’s hard to capture your heart in a caption. But when you look at my family, I pray you see Jesus. I pray you see that He truly answers prayers, redeems, restores.
I want you to know that my God is a Redeemer.
For Joshua, He sets the lonely in families. (Psalm 68:6).
For Raegan, He is a father to the fatherless. (Psalm 68:5).
For me, He gently leads those who have young (Isaiah 40:11), and our Maker is Husband and my Redeemer (Isaiah 54:5).
For Honor, He always keeps His promises. (Psalm 145:13).
In every post, I want you to know my God has been mighty kind to me. I want you to trust His kindness towards you, too.
I dare you to trust God to redeem that which was broken and lost and forgotten. Redemption may not look like my story, but I’m excited to see how He will use yours.
[also, at the time these photos were taken, we didn’t know masks were required when lounging at the beach. In the spirit of honoring our government leaders, we will make sure to wear them!].
She’s mastered the first stage of sitting on her own: the “tripod” sit. I can’t believe this time last year I was newly pregnant and now this promise is here making our lives so much fuller ❤️