Tired Feet and a Happy Heart

My feet feel like they are going to fall off! Allow me to explain. I spent this past weekend with my sweet mom and sister, Brooke, at the market in Atlanta shopping for their store, Pizazz, down in Florida. It was great fun, but a TON of work. I know that the men reading this will balk. Shopping is work? Well, not usually, but when you are buying for an entire store over the course of four days from 8 in the morning until 7 in the evening, then yes, shopping is work. But it is FUN work!

The weekend started out with a bang. I drove over to Atlanta the evening before my mom and sis were due to arrive. This was an enormous blessing, because I got to spend time with one of my nearests and dearests, Jamie Grace. This sweet, wonderful, beautiful friend of mine moved from the Ham to Atlanta last year, and I have missed her so, so much. She and her husband were kind enough to let me crash with them that night so I would not have to drive to the ATL airport from Birmingham before dawn. We had SUCH a wonderful time together (one day was just not enough!). We spent the whole afternoon and evening catching up on each other's lives and truly just enjoying one another's company. Jamie Grace has been such a blessing in my life, and I am so grateful to the Lord for giving me such a sweet friend.

I was due to pick up my mom and sis pretty early the next morning, but Brooke called and told me that their flight was delayed. This ended up being incredibly ironic. You see, Mom did not know that I was coming to market to help them shop. It was a surprise (insert villainous laugh here). I was supposed to be going down to Florida to stay with my dad for the weekend, but we changed plans so that I could surprise her. In order to get away with the surprise, I had told my mom that my flight to Florida had been delayed, and that the next flight I could get on was the following day (meaning I would not get to see her in Florida before she and Brooke left for ATL). The irony is that their flight actually DID get delayed. Oops!

Anyway, they arrived a few hours later, and Mom was totally shocked. Her first words? "What are you doing here?" She is so sweet. :) We had a great time together and did some serious shopping. If you are in the South Florida area, you should really go check out the new merchandise. Way cute! It was SO good to spend time with Mom and Brooke, too. I don't get to see them together too often, so this was another blessing from the Lord for me!

I also have some excellent news on the adoption front... Fingerprints have cleared!!! We are so, so, so, so excited to share that we have both cleared our fingerprint checks, and we are good to go! Adam's clearance letter came in the mail yesterday, and mine should be here tomorrow. This means that we are just around the corner from sending off our dossier, and then we will be officially on the waiting list. Fingerprint clearance is a HUGE milestone! Thank you all for praying for us in this specific area. We are so blessed by you!

So after a busy weekend of shopping and some great news about our fingerprints, I am left with tired feet and a happy heart!

Love,
Baylor