A Life of Gratitude

Last week my little family took a trip to the "Dity"! That's Allisonese for the CITY! We went to Atlanta, Georgia for our family vacation. We had a wonderful time together. We rented a house through Airbnb for the first time and it was definitely a positive experience. We were able to bring our dogs along and we weren't squished into a hotel a room! This vacation went by so fast but it was so much fun! Here's the "Dity" We loved visiting Stone Mountain Park! Riding the train at Stone Mountain Park The Georgia Aquarium was fantastic! Midevil Times was the most fun dinner ever! The Coca-Cola Museum was interesting especially because of the 100 coke products we got to taste!  The kids had so much fun! Lunch at Johnny Rockets!! Milkshakes were a hit! A calm moment for Mom and Dad....sitting on a bench at the Olympic Park Dylan is such a good big brother! Legoland was a blast for everyone! We love

Every single night Allison requests the same book to be read before saying her prayers. She says, "Mommy, read book," and she hands me Princess Prayers.  Every single night we read through the prayers and she points out some of the things in the pictures. Dogs, trees, crowns, sheep, etc. She also points out some of the people and labels them "Mommy, Me, and Daddy."  Tonight she pointed out, "Mommy and Me," as she saw two princesses. Then she pointed to a prince and said, "Daddy." There was another princess on the page so Bryan asked her, "Who is this?" She quickly responded, "Jesus!" That was a first! I said, "Jesus is always with us, so that makes sense." Then, with the sweetest look on her face, she put her hand on her chest and said, "Jesus wuvs me."  I thought my heart was going to burst! Jesus does love you sweet girl!  Then she put her precious little

This afternoon my church, HopeCity, threw a beautiful shower for Briana. Briana is a precious young lady I have had the privilege of mentoring after she chose life for her baby, right outside of the abortion clinic.  Today I am grateful for the opportunity to bless Briana and her family with so many of the things she will need for Basil, her baby girl. I am also thankful for my amazing church family! They came through for Brianna in such a HUGE way! Mostly, I am grateful that God has allowed me to play a small part in helping save this baby girl! It warms my heart so much to think He would allow me to be apart of Basil's story!

The saying, "She believed she could so she did," has been popular for a while now. I've always looked at that saying and had an odd feeling about it. I liked it but then again, I didn't feel right about it. I'm not sure where this notebook came from; maybe I bought it or maybe someone gave it to me. I found it in my drawer a few weeks ago and I've been using it as a journal for a while. Every time I've written in it I've looked at the cover and honestly, the more I looked at it, the more unsettled I felt by it.  We obviously live in a time where women are experiencing surges of power and have more control over our own destiny than ever before. If you listen closely, you can almost hear a continuous underlying soundtrack of  Helen Reddy's, "I Am Woman Hear Me Roar." I know women have SO much to offer and we deserve the chance to chase our dreams. Let's just be honest, we can do almost anything we put our minds to.  But, t