So, WHEN are we going to have a baby?

When are you and your husband going to have children?




   Maybe someone needs to add that to the list of other questions you shouldn't ask people, along with, "when is your baby due?" and "How much money do you make in a year?"


  I realize I'm probably going to offend some people here. People that are reading this have probably asked this question.   Of course these people who ask this question don't mean to cause any harm. They don't mean to be rude, but sometimes it is just that, rude.

  I cannot count how many times we have been asked this question. Frankly, it is nobody's business but who we want to share it with. I was quite set back by the amount of "congratulations" proceeding the month after wedding, followed by, "So when are y'all going to have a baby?" Some people literally ask us this every time we see them.

 The decision to have a baby is an immensely personal question between a husband and wife. Not between you, your husband, and that lady that has talked to you maybe three times since you've worked at the same company together for the past five years.


I think I speak for myself, along with MANY other young women who are newly weds, engaged, or have even been married for more than five years.

 STOP. STOP ASKING WHEN WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY.

   There are many reasons why people may not chose to have a baby. Maybe both or one of them are still in school. Maybe they don't want to have to worry about buying diapers, formula, and paying for tuition. Maybe they just don't feel like they have enough money at the time for their selves, much less a baby. Before you say the stupid line about, "If you wait to have a baby when you have enough money, you will never have one!", they are being responsible. That opinion is irrelevant unless you would like to pay their mortgage and car payment. Maybe that couple who have been married for five years have been trying for the past two years. Maybe their week is filled with peeing on sticks to see if they are even ovulating, and then disappointment when they take another pregnancy test with that one lonely pink line. Maybe they pray every night together that God will bless them with a baby this month, and are hoping this is THE MONTH. Maybe they had a miscarriage two months ago, and every time you ask it is like a knife to their heart again. "What are the odds of that?", you ask. Well it is not a zero percent chance, so don't ask. Maybe they just found out last week that they can't have a baby and are lead to IVF or adoption and are struggling with that decision. Maybe, they don't want children. Children aren't for everyone. Maybe they are still sending out thank-you cards from their wedding because they literally got married thirty days ago.


So for the love of The Lord, and all that is good, please stop asking this question.

We still friends? Great! I cannot wait to chat about the weather the next time we see each other!

Lauren

Dear Dad,

Dear Dad,

  Remember that time you woke me up early one morning and told me to get dressed, pack my hunting clothes we were leaving for the next two days to go hunting with one of my favorite celebrities at the time? I looked at you crazy, and asked, "Who is it dad? It's too early for all the guessing games." When you told me we were going hunting with Troy Landry from 'Swamp People', I died laughing. How much fun was that trip? We laughed and made more memories that trip than ever before.

     I witnessed one of the coolest things that lots of hunters don't get to witness in person. Two bucks had a full on fight right in front of us. You told me, " When this is over, the loser will run off in the woods and the winner is going to strut in front of this field of does and you shoot the winner." I took a deep breath, lined up my shot, and it happened exactly as you said it would. The loser ran off, and the winner began to strut. I took a deep breath, FLINCHED, then pulled the trigger. "You got him baby!", you screamed in excitement. I could have cared less that I shot the deer at this point as I was grabbing my eye and I felt something wet streaming down my face. "I don't give a crap what I did dad! My eye! I have knocked it out of my head and I'm bleeding everywhere!" You laughed and told me, "It's still there Lauren. It is not bleeding, your eye is just watering from where the scope hit it." Well that scope made one heck of a black eye, and one memorable photo with Jackie Bushman pointing at my eye and Troy Landry smirking on the other side of me.

 

 

      How about all those times you woke me up in the middle of the night when you couldn't sleep and my favorite movie was on late at night, I know you remember that! My favorite movie, JAWS, thanks to you. My favorite was when one of us couldn't sleep late at night, one would wake the other, and say, "Let's go to waffle house!" Those were some of the funniest nights. All the crazies were out then, and we'd sit and laugh at all the people who were doing card tricks and just being plain weird. There obviously weren't any normal people there at 2 A.M., us included.

   I don't think mom was too excited I enjoyed hunting, fishing, movies like Jaws, and going to a 24-hour breakfast joint at all hours of the morning instead of Barbie dolls, and other regular  girl things. But that is what happens when your dad is your best friend. We have made some hilarious, great, unbelievable, and just plain weird memories. I wouldn't take them for the world though.

   I'm so glad you have chosen to take me under your wing, make me all yours, and shape me into who I am today. You have taught me to enjoy the little things in life, and don't sweat the small stuff. You've always been behind me and my dreams 110%, even when my dreams were plain stupid, (You knew the stupid ones would change next week). Thanks for taking me everywhere, whether it be to work at The Birmingham News, out of town when you had to go do last minute stories, keeping me out from school to go on hunting and fishing trips, or just taking me for a ride through the country when you needed to clear your head and get away.


  We've enjoyed some great times dad. I don't ever want to stop making these awesome memories with you. So I'm going to need them to hurry up and figure out how to start making people live forever. It was just this year when I was afraid that our memory making might stop. You scared me to death that day. So don't you ever pull that crap again. I will never forget the way I felt that day, absolutely crazy and numb as Skylar raced us to the hospital. Stroke is exactly what I feared as mom told me your blood pressure and symptoms. My dad can't have a stroke I thought to myself as I remembered back to just a few weeks before when a man rolled through the ER and suffered from the same kind of stroke you had. The doctor had to tell his family there was nothing else we could do for him. That's exactly what I feared on the way there. I have seen too many bad things to be positive in that moment. But much to my surprise, it was not a bad stroke. You did not have permanent paralysis, permanent speech loss, and you are still here. Thank God you are one of the lucky ones.

   I cannot wait to see where the coming years take us in our journeys, Dad. I can't wait to see you become a "Pop" one day, and to make fun of you when you poop in your Depends. Live to be two hundred Dad, because I'll never be through making these crazy, fun, hilarious memories with you.  You may have loved me since I've been born, but I've loved you my entire life.

                                                                Love your tom-boy,
                                                                            Lauren

Waiting, Patience, Prayer...

 "PLEASE LORD. HELP ME. HURRY GOD. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? DO YOU EVEN HEAR ME?"  My prayers have been consumed lately by something I have been truly struggling with, harder than most things I've been through.



  " WAIT. STOP. LISTEN TO ME. BE PATIENT. TRUST ME. "

    These are all things I believe the Lord has been answering me with lately, as I cry out to him.




     I don't believe there is anyone who truly enjoys waiting. I never imagined I would have more trouble waiting for something as an adult, than I did as a child. We live in a world where we as humans hate to wait. Waiting in traffic, waiting on someone to call/text you back, waiting on food at a restaurant, waiting on your shift at work to be over, and waiting on God.

     For several months now I have prayed, cried out to God, cried to myself, & cried to those who are close to me. There have been points where I have thought, "God, do you even hear me?". On those days when it is all just too much to bear, I have turned to scripture, really dug deep into God's word. These past few days God has begun to really change my impatient heart.

    Job is who I think of when I think about patience and waiting in scripture. God allowed the devil to destroy everything he had to prove his faithfulness in the Lord. Job lost EVERYTHING. His servants, his cattle, his wealth, his crops, his property, and most importantly, Job lost his children. Job knew the Lord had a plan for his life, trusted his plan, and never questioned his plans for his life.





And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. ¹¹ Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold.

¹² Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. ¹³ He also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵ In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.
¹⁶ After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. ¹⁷ So Job died, old and full of days.

--Job 42:10-16


    How amazing is that? Job never questioned God, even when he lost absolutely everything he had. He trusted God and his plan for his life. Job prayed for his friends, even when he lost everything. When he prayed for his friends, God gave him TWICE as much as before. Then it says, Job died after 140 years, and full of days.

After reading that, how could I not be patient and wait on the Lord? His timing is perfect, my plan is all his own, and if I am patient, the Lord will bless me in ways I could not even imagine being blessed. I am so thankful I did not turn away from God, but turned to scripture in this tribulation of life. When you feel like you may not be getting the 'right' answer, or you may not feel like you are being answered at all, seek God's word. It will never fail you, you will always be able to find an answer there.

God Bless,
Lauren

Becoming Davis

     When I imagined 'married life' as a teenager,  I pictured having the picture perfect family. A cookie cutter home, in a cookie cutter neighborhood, lots of kids running around,  summer beach vacations, vacations in the mountains each winter, raising my family a few miles (at most) from my parents in my home town, a husband with some type of job in the business world, being a stay at home mom, having a spotless house, and cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

    Now that I have been experienced this lovely marriage for the past 425 days, I can assure you it is nothing like I pictured or could have imagined. I don't say that in a bad way, it is just nothing I had 'planned' for as a young naïve girl. Our family is far from 'picture perfect', but we love it all the same. We don't live in a cookie cutter home in a garden home community in my hometown, but in a neighborhood thirty-five minutes from my hometown (which I have enjoyed much more than I originally thought I would). Our dream of lots of children running around in our yard has been put on hold by news from doctors, and the kids we have now running through our yard have 4 legs, are covered in fur, and have a tail. Our beach and mountain vacations don't take place in a hotel room, but rather in a camper, and are wherever our hearts see fit that season/month. My husband doesn't wear a suit and work a 9 to 5 job, but comes home in Carhartt pants, dirty callused hands, and arrives home in the wee hours of the morning. My dreams of being a stay at home mom, have drastically changed as I would probably do nothing productive other than watch a 5 year TV series on Netflix in 5 days, since I have no children now, and I can honestly admit that. I have a very rewarding job, but I definitely needed an upgrade in the professional world, and have since finished school and hope to land a new job in the coming months. Our 'spotless' home is not so spotless all the time, and those 3 meals are hard to make when your husband and yourself work the most asinine hours of the day.

    I would give nothing for my husband and our journey we've yet to be on so far. I cannot wait to see what the coming years will bring to our family. I am looking forward to making many memories thirty-five minutes away from my hometown, with our 3 fur children running around the yard, traveling with a camper behind our truck, and to becoming a better wife and family in this crazy process.