Here's what's new:

A Peek Into This Past Week

We drove to Charlotte, NC last week for me to speak at the SheSpeaks Conference. We had to stop by Buc-ee’s on the way there! It was our first time to go and we were impressed!

Kierstyn kept saying it looked like a grocery store!

I’ve not traveled anywhere to speak my entire pregnancy (I’ve done lots of online things, but nothing in person), so it was so fun and life-giving to get to speak to a live audience (well, there was also a huge virtual audience tuning in, too!) This photo was from one of the attendees’ Instagram accounts (if it was you, please let me know so I can credit you! I took a screenshot and then forgot to note where it was from!)

I also got to do a backstage interview for the virtual attendees with Ruth Schwenk. (And yes, Micah came to a lot of the conference with me. Though Jesse picked him up and watched him during my session and during the backstage interview!)

It was so special to get to meet some of you in person, too! That’s always the best part of speaking at conferences!

After speaking at the conference, we met up with my sister and her husband and family. We loved getting to introduce Micah to them!

Here’s my older sister, Brigette, who shares her grocery shopping trips here.

And then Jesse surprised me by taking us to TCBY — a place I have such fond memories of from my childhood.

It was definitely not self-serve when I was a child, though, so that surprised me!

We stopped by Cafe Moka on Saturday morning (we always love trying out local, new-to-us coffee shops while traveling!)

And then we stopped by my younger sister’s house on the way home to visit with her family.

Her baby girl, Aspen, was so cute with Micah!

Kierstyn loved playing their piano.

And D loved playing in their activity center while he ate.

We drove about more 3 1/2 hours and then stopped in Cookeville, TN at this park and splash pad we found. (D was so excited to get down and play in the grass — even though he was in the middle of his feed!)

Micah is becoming more and more interactive and it’s the sweetest!

D was SO into the water1

Here he is begging to go back and play in the water!

And then we went and played on the playground for awhile!

This was SUCH a nice park in Cookeville, TN and we highly recommend it!

Sunday was D’s birthday — can you believe he’s 2 years old?? Guess what song we sang in church? The song that has become my sort of anthem for his life (Goodness of God).

After church, we stopped by some Mexican markets to pick up some items for his birthday celebration. (He’s Guatemalan.

We also got to take care of C all day on Sunday while his mom worked a double shift. It was the longest he’s been with us since he reunified with his mom a year and a half ago and he did so well — even having a great attitude about going to the 2-year-old class at church!

This is life right now. Our bedroom is usually messy and the bed is rarely made, but we get to spend our days loving on and snuggling with and caring for little ones and it is such a gift. Some day, our room will likely be much cleaner, but for now, I’m just focusing on what matters most of all!