Barrett, ever the over-achiever and workaholic, decided to check out this Air Force training thing called WIC (Weapons Instructor Course). I won't inundate you with all the details of that, but leave it as it was some of the hardest and most rewarding months we have ever experienced. He was gone for most of 6 months, getting his butt kicked day in and day out in the attempts to become a better USAF Officer and C-130J Pilot. Before he started this course, we had prayed as a couple and with our church group that we would just give this experience over to God for his purpose and his glory. We also were praying as a couple through this training, that whatever came out of it for our lives, we would be open to God's plan. It is funny looking back at those prayers and our conversations and how as usual God's plan is better than ours.
So fast forward to December 10, 2009 at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. Barrett is finishing up training and I am hanging out in his room at the Nellis Inn (complete with orange and avocado bathroom and orange carpet) waiting on family and friends to arrive and begin our fun Graduation weekend in Vegas. I just knew "something" wasn't right and I wasn't feeling like myself. A trip to the BX later and some crying in that orange and avocado bathroom, I figured out what was going on. Barrett was off meeting with some Generals or something, so he got to find out via text that I was pregnant. It was a whirlwind weekend for both of us and one I know we will NEVER forget.
That brings us to today. Barrett and I are expecting our first child, daughter named Harper Faith on August 9th. While we were busy praying for God to open up the right career doors for us all those months ago, He was busying preparing something bigger and better for us. It isn't that we didn't want kids, we just had gotten around to that yet. I guess we were stuck in our comfort zones in a lot of ways.
That is where the "Faith" in her middle name comes from. I truly believe that we have lived in faith these past few months and God has exceedingly and abundantly blessed us in all areas of our life and I know He will continue to do so. (Harper comes from my need to make her know her deep roots in Alabama and the South).
Through this entire faith journey, God keeps reiterating to me over and over and over that His plans are bigger and better than mine. Hebrews 11:40 has become written on heart. "God had planned something BETTER for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." God has such BETTER plans for each of us, but we have to do our part also. We have to seek Him and be patient sometimes and obediant always. When we do that we truly allow God to roll up His sleeves and get busy with that BETTER plan for us.
So this is where we are today...living in faith and confidently expecting God to reveal his plan for our family of 3 in His time. It has been an amazing revelation to get to this point. When you realize that God has that plan and purpose for you, it is true freedom. I don't have to stress and worry and be overwhelmed wondering how everything will work out. I just have to live in FAITH.
