Such a Happy GIrl

Serving with Sincerity

"I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. [. . .] Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness."
Joshua 24:13-14

I came across these verses yesterday as I was reading in the book of Joshua. It is such an encouraging book about the Lord's faithfulness to His people. In these verses, Joshua is reminding the Israelites that they received the Promised Land as a gift from God that must not be understood as based on their own achievements or behavior. One of the things that I struggle with a lot as a Christian is the belief that my actions, my achievements, and my behavior determine the way God views me. I sometimes go into this "performance mentality" instead of realizing that my merit before the Lord comes from the work of Jesus on the cross, not how well I "performed" for the Lord today.

These verses also reminded me of the innumerable amount of blessings the Lord has bestowed on my life. I have an amazing husband, a precious daughter, loving families, a beautiful home, blossoming friendships, and a God-glorifying church. The Lord brought such a gentle reminder and some correction to my heart because there is nothing that I have that is due to my own achievements. It is all the Lord's doing. I pray that I will walk in obedience as I "therefore, fear the Lord and serve in sincerity and in faithfulness." May I do this not because I aim to earn the Lord's favor through my actions, but as a response of love and gratitude and awareness of the God I serve.

4-Month Check-Up

Today was Nora's 4-month check-up! We were very excited to see how she has grown since her last visit at 2 months old. She weighed in at 11 lbs., 13 oz. (20th percentile) and is 24 inches long (45th percentile). She is long and skinny! She received her 4-month vaccinations today also, and although she cried when getting stuck, she stopped as soon as I picked her up! What a good girl!

Nora is 19 weeks this week, and just over the past few days she has started laughing out loud! Of course, Jonathan and I act like fools to make this happen, but it is SOOOO worth it when we hear her sweet laugh and squeals. She is also working on getting up the nerve to roll all the way over onto her stomach. She uses a toy to pull herself 3/4 of the way over, but can't seem to make it 100%. She is so much fun.

Looking Back at 2007

The year 2007 has been one of many changes for our little family. As this new year is beginning, I have been thinking back to all that the Lord has brought us into this past year.

-Jonathan got accepted into the Knoxville GPR residency program at UTMC.
-A healthy and wonderful pregnancy for our little Nora Kathryn.
-Jonathan took and passed his CERTA boards, officially making him a licensed dentist!
-We bought our home in Knoxville in a quick series of events (3 days from when the house went on the market until we were the new owners). It was totally the Lord's provision and timing!
-Jonathan graduated from LSU School of Dentistry.
-We moved to Knoxville.
-We celebrated 3 years of marriage!
-We sold our home on Avenue A in New Orleans to the Louisiana Road Home program. No more craziness to deal with regarding Hurricane Katrina! YEAH!
-Jonathan started his residency at UT and is absolutely loving it. He tells me all the time how much he is enjoying what he does. How blessed we are that he gets paid for doing what he is called to do and what he LOVES to do!
-We had a safe, healthy, and fun delivery of our baby girl, Nora Kathryn Bradshaw.
-We have become members at Cornerstone Church of Knoxville and have been blessed with wonderful friends! Although we have only been here for about 8 months, Jonathan and I both feel like we've been living here for years! We definitely miss being closer to our families, but God has been so kind and generous in giving us friends that are so much like "family."
-We have had the priviledge of caring for our daughter and have been stretched in new ways as we care for her. I think Jonathan and I both fall more and more in love with her everyday. God has definitely challenged me through Nora and shows me daily how much I need him. He makes EVERYTHING glorious!

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow!" We look forward to all that the Lord will do in our lives and through us in 2008.

Merry Christmas

We are home! We had a wonderful Christmas this year and were so blessed to be able to spend time with our families. We had a great visit in Jackson and got to see lots of family members and introduce Nora for the first time to several of them. On Christmas Eve, the entire family went to church for the Christmas Eve service. Nora looked so beautiful in her Christmas dress, and she was able to stay in the service for almost the entire time. Naturally, during communion she started talking so Jonathan took her out to walk the halls. He brought her back in at the end of the service as we were lighting the candles and singing Christmas carols. We returned home to eat a delicious, traditional Christmas dinner. We opened a few gifts before going to bed, but opened up most of them the next morning. Nora was spoiled by her grandparents and aunt....she got several toys and some cute clothes! Her favorite things are those that she can chew on as she is constantly drooling and wanting to eat whatever she can get her hands on. We've got a teether!

We left Jackson on Thursday, Dec. 27th and headed to New Orleans to have a few post-Christmas days with my parents and sisters. They spent their Christmas in Texas visiting my grandmother and other family there, including my brother Jeremy and his wife Laura and son Tanner. We spent Friday the 28th making my dad's Million Dollar Gumbo. Actually, my dad makes most of it, but we all contributed a bit. The recipe is actually my maternal grandpa's that my dad got from him years ago after spending a day with him and writing down every step and every ingredient as my grandfather prepared it. It is a delicious seafood gumbo with TONS of crabmeat and shrimp. (My dad calls it Million Dollar gumbo because he says it costs close to a million dollars to make...not really, but seafood can get expensive. My dad gets a little crazy with it though. For example, the original recipe only calls for 4 lbs of shrimp, but my dad puts in 9.) Regardless, it is amazingly tasty!

On Saturday, my grandmother and aunts came over for a visit, and surprise, surprise, we had MORE seafood. We ate the gumbo and then we fried fresh catfish and shrimp, and my mom got a few boiled crabs. We ate like kings! It was wonderful to spend time with the family, and I particularly enjoyed my grandmother getting to see Nora again. It was a year ago exactly that we broke the news to her that Nora was on her way, and I cannot believe how quickly the past 12 months have gone by. After everyone left, my mom, my two sisters, and I sat around the table and played a game of Scrabble. It was so fun and felt like old times just hanging out and spending such sweet time together. With Jonathan and I living in Knoxville, my parents and Hillary in NOLA, and Emily in Brooklyn, NY, it is rare that we get to all be together. It was such a wonderful weekend.

We are finally home after a very long week, and we are anticipating getting unpacked and being able to relax for a bit before Jonathan goes back to work. Nora goes to the doctor on Friday for her 4 month check-up, so we'll have plenty of updates about her progress after that.