Our California baby is obsessed with the ocean #CaliBaby
I can celebrate National Daughter’s Day because of these two gems. They are the best parts of me and Joshua. I can’t begin to explain just how much the Lord ministers to me through these girls. I adore them. #NationalDaughtersDay
🌺 Honor Grace Jordan turned 6 months old this week 🌺
This girl ditched her pacifier, continues to crawl, grabs at everything, passes items back and forth between her hands, and is starting to turn and respond when you call out to her. Prunes, apples, mangos, carrots, and sweet potatoes are her jam. Splashing at bath tub is her new hobby.
Raegan is her best friend, she's always down to play with her. Daddy is her favorite comedian, and she can't help but smile every time she sees Mommy. She really loves Mommy's dance routines, tickles, and opera rendition of Baby Shark.
She's not a fan of strangers or interrupted schedules.
Our little gummy baby bear is everything .
Left: Graduating college with Raegan, Right: Graduating law school with Raegan.
It’s been a few years since I’ve shared my story and these photos, so today I’m taking a pause on #KingdomFridays to open up about my testimony over on YouTube.
Part I of my story is up, link in bio ❤️
Today marks 4 years as a lawyer ⚖️ I’ve moved from Big Law to clerking to stay at home mom for a season and now planning to head back to practice with licenses from 2 states. I’m thankful to be an officer of the court. #Esquire #AttorneyMelonieJordan
🍂Happy First Day of Fall! 🍂 Celebrating today with a new blog post! Today I’m sharing my take on the fall bucket list for Christian mamas!
At a time when nature seems to be shedding and entering rest, us moms tend to gear up for busy-ness. In recent years, many of us have taken up a “bucket lists” of fall activities put together to help us enjoy everything this season traditionally offers.
Today I’m inviting you into a more intentional, slower-paced, richer experience. My take on the fall bucket list is for Christian mamas who are looking for ideas to point out the hand of God all around us, for ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and for tools to disciple our children.
To see the rest of the list, check out the blog! (Link in bio)!
Happy #KingdomFriday! Josh the Boss and I are back with another video for our series “Living Kingdom” over on YouTube “Joy in Pain and Chaos.”
If we are a people of the Kingdom of God, then we are a people of joy, no matter the circumstance. Link in bio!
#KingdomFridays
On the blog:
Fires. Air cloudy with soot. Covid. Our ocean and animals suffering. Hurricanes. Black and brown bodies falling disproportionately to illness and violence. The brokenness of this world can cause a mother to fall victim to fear for their little ones.
Last year, I cried out in prayer to God for my baby girls and He said “Read Psalm 121 to them every night.” I couldn’t recall what Psalm 121 said off the top of my head. When I read it, peace flowed over me. Josh and I pray this over the girls every night, and now Raegan has this psalm memorized.
It’s my war cry. It’s my assurance. It’s what I know to be true in these last days as the earth travails. In only 8 verses, my heart is stilled as I entrust my babies to the One who made them.
If the craziness of the world makes you worry for your children, pray this over your kids tonight:
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”
Psalms 121:1-8
❤️ This gummy bear ❤️ I can’t get over this baby.
🌷Honor Grace🌷She sits up independently, rolls over from her onto her tummy and pushes herself up to sit up. Now she’s been scooting and crawling here and there. She’s about 5 1/2 months old and she’s on a roll! 😭
I have a history of divorce in my family. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that divorce really imprinted my heart and spirit. This, plus the hurt I was carrying from my previous relationship that left me a single mom, made divorce seem appetizing when we faced a hailstorm of trials.
Through the help of the Holy Spirit, a praying husband, and wise counsel that I dearly love and respect, I have found freedom from generational patterns of divorce. God challenged me, and showed me that I had a habit of running and of longing for my time as a single mom, when that’s not the season He had for me anymore. I thought I wasn’t cut out for marriage, but God healed me, and showed me that I am cut out for marriage when I adopt His perspective about covenant and stop romanticizing culture’s solutions for a God-made Union.
Healing from abuse takes work. Getting rid of man’s solutions for marital problems like we faced (largely found in pride) takes work. Work found in submitting my passions, inclinations, worldview, need to defend myself, desire to cut off people and my husband at the first sign of hurt, all of that, to Jesus and letting my leaders see my heart.
My husband and I have come so far. As I’ve healed, my marriage has gotten better. I am no longer tempted to break apart that which God joined together. We are still working it out (because some days I’m ready to square up), but I know that our today, and our future, is much better than anything in the past, to God’s glory.
Happy #KingdomFriday! My beloved husband and I are back with another video for our series “Living Kingdom” over on YouTube!
Today we are discussing “Grace.” Once I got a hold of this revelation about grace, it changed my entire life. Link in bio!
#KingdomFridays
It’s our 3rd wedding anniversary ❤️ This one feels so special — it feels triumphant. We’re walking into another year of marriage stronger, and it’s because of my beloved husband.
I penned an open letter to my husband over on the blog today to capture just how much today means to me. Below is an excerpt:
———————————————————————
“When someone goes through abuse, it is really hard to view a new love with an untainted view. Suspicion creeps in, walls are built, and if one is not careful, caution begins to replace the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our lives. Fear begins to lead us when it’s His voice that should sound the loudest over our lives.
Thankfully, I had you to help me love freely again. ...
With you I can feel like a woman again.
I don’t have to be hardened. I don’t have to be guarded.
I can have the highest expectations of romance, and you exceed them. You have spoiled me with your best. I swear no woman on earth is so well-loved as I am by you.”
#WrightforJordanForever
I once received a message on IG encouraging me, saying that restoration looks good on me.
So timely, so true.
Restoration looks and feels good, but it’s taken years of work and healing for me. For my marriage. For my self esteem. For my spirit and soul.
Restoration is a process, and I’m walking mine out with my Jesus every day.
Through abuse and failed friendships, empty bank accounts and sickness, single motherhood and homelessness and bus rides, and a tough marital season, I’ve had to fight for my worship. And I’ve had to come face to face with trauma.
To fall on my face and cry, to quit calling my friends so much and call on Jesus to give me healing and a changed heart, and cry ugly tears through years of counseling sessions.
Going through a lot can leave lots of nasty scars, and can really affect the way we view life moving forward, but God can restore and heal all of it. He can give fresh perspective and teach us to view life through triumph, not trauma.
If we can endure trauma, surely we can endure the hard work of healing. Go through the healing process, if you need. The fruit of it — restoration — tastes amazing.
5 years ago he made me his.
Late that night, we sat atop the Jackson Street Bridge in Atlanta, and he asked me what I thought about being official. I was so afraid but electric with excitement. I almost squealed but, in my standard awkwardness, I said, “Uhhh I dunno, what do YOU think about it?”
He said he thought it was a great idea.
He was so right.
We got married two years later almost to the day.
That’s my boo. God, You did that.
Almost 3 years of marriage with this King. Almost 5 years total together. He wasted no time in wifing me, adopting Raegan, making Honor, and holding us down when we walked through some storms. And we’re still standing. A true King, a real one. My husbae. ❤️
Happy Friday! My husband and I are back with another video for our series “Living Kingdom” over on YouTube!
Today we are discussing “Honor,” a virtue that has become so important to us that our daughter bears it as her name. We are encourage you to honor others above yourself - not just leaders and your parents, but every single person. Link in bio!
#KingdomFridays
Today’s a special day for this breastfeeding mama. I donated over 200 ounces of breast milk to @mothersmilkbanksj. What a fitting way to cap off my own blog series, where I shared posts about my dairy-free diet and breastfeeding my baby with a milk allergy (link in bio).
Though I’ve breastfed both my girls, my time with my oldest didn’t last as long as I wanted. I was a single mom in college, and just didn’t have access to as much information and partner support as I do now.
Experiences like mine are all too common for Black mothers. Statistics show that Black mothers are less likely to start and/or continue breastfeeding than any other race. This racial disparity exists for numerous reasons, including lack of familial support or economic resources.
This of course is exacerbated by a high Black maternal mortality rate and higher rates of preterm births of Black babies.
I want to close this gap and reverse the low rates of Black mothers breastfeeding. I’m donating to help provide milk for preterm babies while mamas’ milk comes in. See if you can jump in and help close the gap!
#MilkWarrior #BlackBreastfeedingMama
“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Matthew 3:8.
Another translation says, “Bring forth fruit that is consistent with repentance [let your lives prove your change of heart].”
Repentance is change. You’re turning around and going in a new direction. You’re changing your journey, and that change is marked by fruit in our lives.
Repent, let your heart be changed, and let the change produce some new results in your life. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
My final dessert recipe features dairy-free mini pecan pies! I consider these my pride and joy. I have received high compliments not only from my husband, a born-and-raised Louisiana man and foodie, but all of our Louisiana loved ones — given that these folks have been raised on good pecan pies, I feel that’s the highest compliment.
These compliments are usually given right when I serve them, in the thick of a family gathering to celebrate or even mourn. As such, it’s become synonymous with family —this recipe has been adapted to my tastes and now has become my family recipe.
Link in bio!
Our California baby is obsessed with the ocean #CaliBaby
I can celebrate National Daughter’s Day because of these two gems. They are the best parts of me and Joshua. I can’t begin to explain just how much the Lord ministers to me through these girls. I adore them. #NationalDaughtersDay
🌺 Honor Grace Jordan turned 6 months old this week 🌺
This girl ditched her pacifier, continues to crawl, grabs at everything, passes items back and forth between her hands, and is starting to turn and respond when you call out to her. Prunes, apples, mangos, carrots, and sweet potatoes are her jam. Splashing at bath tub is her new hobby.
Raegan is her best friend, she's always down to play with her. Daddy is her favorite comedian, and she can't help but smile every time she sees Mommy. She really loves Mommy's dance routines, tickles, and opera rendition of Baby Shark.
She's not a fan of strangers or interrupted schedules.
Our little gummy baby bear is everything .
Left: Graduating college with Raegan, Right: Graduating law school with Raegan.
It’s been a few years since I’ve shared my story and these photos, so today I’m taking a pause on #KingdomFridays to open up about my testimony over on YouTube.
Part I of my story is up, link in bio ❤️