This Time Last Year

Today is the one year anniversary of Korben and me moving to Fort Smith. I didn't include Aaron in that statement because he was already here, "preparing a place for us (I told you he was godly)." He picked us up from my mom's house in Jacksonville on Saturday, April 5th, and we headed to Fort Smith. I can not tell you how shocking it was to see our home. I felt like I was on Extreme Makeover Home Edition! I had seen it back in February when we decided to buy it, but I had not seen it since so many talented people had helped to renovate it. I will forever be grateful for Aaron, Don, Julie, Don Lehman, Cheryl Lehman, and MANY others who helped make our house a beautiful home in such a short amount of time.

It was an incredible blessing to me, at such a stressful adjustment time, to not have to worry about anything regarding our home. All I had to do was "arrive" and I thank you all of the gift of "peace of mind" you all gave me. God works in so many ways to help people through tragedies, and one of the ways he blessed me was through all of you taking care of those things that would have pushed my stress level over the top at that time.

On this Sunday, one year ago, I attended my new church for the first time. As a new mother, having lived in Fort Smith less than 24 hours, I was a little nervous about everything that day. I was especially nervous about leaving him in the nursery for the first time, considering he was just one day shy of 4 weeks old. God blessed me so much through Linda Cain. Even though I heard she'd worked with the babies for 17+ years, she still made me feel like Korben and his individual needs were of utmost importance to her. Her love for Korben quickly made me feel so loved, and she immediately became my "comfort zone" in my new church home. Thank you, Linda for reaching out to me, through loving my baby.


I'd like to introduce you to a new segment of my blog called "Korben: This Time Last Year." These pictures of Korben were taken just a few, short days before I left my mom's house. And as you can see, Geoffrey the Giraffe has been watching over him since the beginning! The bottom two pictures don't possibly look like they were taken on the same day, but they were! He always looked like a completely different baby when he was sleeping than he did when he was awake. Oh, and the tan...his jaundice lingered until he was almost two months old!

April 1st: