Thank you, 2015.

2015 has been an amazing year! 

Emersyn had many firsts this year, including her first birthday. I can't even believe how much she has grown this year and everything that she is continuing to learn.

We welcomed a niece, a nephew, and a sister in law into the family!

Elliot Ishi and Azelie Jean 

#longlivemorganondorf

We also found out we were having a boy and then had him!

This is where I want to stop for a second. On July 1st at 9:25 pm, after hours of natural labor, I gave birth to Zion Alexander. It was painful and it was hard but before I knew it, there he was. He was perfect. 7 pounds 9 ounces, 20 1/4 inches. 24 hours later, they were taking him from me and admitting him to the NICU. This hurt worse than any labor pains I dealt with. I kept noticing him breathing funny and told a nurse who said it was normal. After a shift change, I noticed it again, told the nurse (who also said it was normal), and then let her take him for some type of routine test. When she came back, she informed me that he definitely was breathing strangely and that they had admitted him to the NICU. That night when we visited him, they said he was fine and that they just needed to monitor him. The next day when we visited him, he was on 100% oxygen and they had no idea why he couldn't breathe. For the next few visits, he didn't seem to be getting better and we still had no answers. If you've ever had a child in the NICU, you know this pain. I couldn't hold him (for the first week). I couldn't feed him (shout out to moms who exclusively pump because that was some work lol I was so happy to be able to just nurse instead of pump once we took him home). 

When you walk into a room and your baby has gone from fine to a machine breathing for him, it's scary. The two weeks of him being there taught me so much. We knew he was fine but it was so much back and forth from "he's better" to "he's worse." God sure did use this time to speak to us. He taught me a lot about faith and who He is. He used us to pray for multiple nurses at the hospital. He sent a man all the way from the other side of the world to preach for a service that I would be at while my son was in the NICU and my family had just moved 10 hours away to teach me a lesson that would change my life, and then called me to pray healing over Zion's NICU nurse that night. I have no idea if she was healed but thats not even the main point. I was growing. He sent me siblings who would wrap their arms around me and pray for me and friends who would sleep in the hospital with me while I cried because I just wanted to hold my son. He gave me a daughter who would light up the room the second she walked in the door every single time. He gave me a husband who was willing to do whatever he needed to do to make sure I could stay at the hospital to be near my son and a mom who helped as much as she possibly could before moving away. 

Growing pains hurt. I grew more in those two weeks than I had in a long time and it wasn't always fun, but now looking back, I can see everything that was going on. I can see where He was crying with me and hurting with me. I can also see where He was admiring this little boy that He had created and holding him when I couldn't. Zion got to come home on a Friday and on that Sunday, we got to dedicate him to the Lord right next to two of my brothers. Definitely one of my favorite moments. Now I have a chunky, smiley 6 month old who breathes perfectly fine and God is still admiring him with me every day. 

"When you pass through the waters, I'll be with you; and through the rivers, they won't sweep over you. when you walk through fire you won't be scorched, and the flame won't set you ablaze." Isaiah 43:2 

Anyway, my family moved to Missouri. We love it there and we've been able to visit a few times already. I am thankful that they found a place that they love and even though Im sad when we aren't together, I love the excitement of every time I get to see them again.

My brother got married and this is my favorite picture ever of all of us. 

I work for the best company ever, TruVision Health, and we had our first ever convention. It was awesome!

I learned more and more about sewing and absolutely love it!!! Not to mention how much I absolutely love the two ladies that help us learn more about it, even when they have their own jobs to be doing. MawMaw and Granny, y'all are amazing. <3

I celebrated 3 years of marriage to my favorite human being ever! Ive never known a more loving, goofy, Godly, compassionate, kind, energetic, helpful person in my life. 3 years of marriage has been interesting and awesome. Sometimes our life is wild, but I love every moment of learning life with this guy.

Zion celebrated his first Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas which were all a blast even though it rained on Halloween and he slept through Christmas morning lol. 

I started this year off with one kid, I'm ending it with 2.

I started this year off with hobbies, I'm ending it with passions.

I started this year off with a love for God, Im ending it with more faith than ever before.

I can't wait to see where God takes us in 2016 and I can't wait to follow Him with my 3 favorite humans by my side.

>Murray Mania<

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Recently, a friend of mine wrote her mom a blog for her birthday and it was so, so sweet. This is me formally admitting to stealing her idea because I loved it. (Shout out to you Hannah Taylor!)

Anyway, this is my mom:

She's beautiful. She's smart. She's funny(ish). She's a lot of things, but today...she's 48!!!!! I am so thankful that God placed you on this earth 48 years ago and decided to give you the greatest gift ever (me) twenty-something years later after a few mediocre gifts that came beforehand. (Sidenote: My brothers are amazing. I love you guys.) It's crazy how you don't realize all the things that go into motherhood until you become a mother. My kids aren't even teenagers yet sooo yeah, I foresee a much more intense blog post for you in about twelve to fifteen years. Anyway, I just have a few things to thank you for:

Thank you for everything I couldn't possibly remember. Sleepless nights, trips to the park, bubble blowing, dealing with tantrums, diaper changes, not murdering any of us when you had 4 babies at once, hair fixing, stroller pushing, and everything else that I was too young to remember.

Thank you for waking up early on the mornings that I wanted my hair french braided for school and for not beating me with the brush when I complained about it hurting.

Thank you for coming to school for parent lunches.

Thank you for walking us to school and always being there to pick us up (even if you were a little late sometimes...a lot of times haha)

Thank you for not listening to your doctor, refusing chemo, and choosing natural options when you had breast cancer even though they told you you would die and for showing us what it looks like to trust God with your life, literally.

Thank you for teaching me that it's okay to wear makeup when you want to feel pretty, but always telling me how beautiful I was without it.

Thank you for teaching me how to bargain shop and for taking me on all those dreadful trips to Goodwill even though I hated it. Also, for waking me up terribly early for garage sales even though I didn't want to wake up. I always enjoyed it once I could get past the waking up part.

Thank you for letting me get my belly button pierced when I was 14 even though everyone thought you had lost your mind.

Thank you for buying me a straightener because even though you knew I was beautiful, sometimes afros need to be tamed.

Thank you for teaching me to hold my shoulders back.

Thank you for showing me that motherhood is about sacrifice and teaching me that my decisions will always affect more than just me.

Thank you for putting me in dance and always being my #1 fan.

Thank you for signing me up for rec soccer and letting me find how much I love it. And thank you for letting me play high school soccer even though we didn't have a lot of money.

Thank you for teaching me good eating habits and only letting us have snack at 10 and 3 so that we wouldn't think we should constantly be eating.

Thank you of pushing me to tryout for the youth band when Shannon was even though I had no intentions whatsoever of trying out. I thought I didn't sing well and just rode along for fun. You made a comment that I could sing too, Zeb told me to come up there, and here I am 10 years later, still leading worship. Thank you.

Thank you for putting us in Musical Mondays when we were in elementary school and making us be in chorus when we were in middle/high school. Eventually, we all loved it.

Thank you for making me do chores and clean even though I never, ever, ever wanted to.

Thank you of making me change diapers and help take care of the younger kids. Who would've known I'd have two of my own before I even turned 21.

Thank you for taking me to church and making me go to youth every single Wednesday and every single times there was an event. Eventually, church was my second home.

Thank you for not giving up on me when you had every reason to and for praying with me while my heart was broken over a boy even though I know you didn't want to because of everything I had done.

Thank you for not allowing me to date somehow who didn't believe in the same things that I believe in even though I thought Id never forgive you for it.

Thank you for always giving whether that was just a dollar to a man on the street when we barely could afford groceries or a whole car to someone who needed one now that you can do that. Thank you for being a perfect example of what it looks like to give like Jesus whether you barely have anything or you have plenty.

Thank you for sending Patrick Murray to my house with yogurt one random night and for inviting him to my 17th birthday dinner even though I did not want him to be there whatsoever.

Thank you for my wedding and everything that went along with it. It was beautiful and perfect and I loved every bit of it.

Thank you for loving my kids and for coming to every single doctors appointment that I had during both pregnancies. And thank you for the countless times you babysat, especially when it was so that I could work kids church or lead worship at youth.

Thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for all the laughs, hugs, tears, and shoes.

There are definitely about a million more things to thank you for but I figured this is getting long enough. I love you, mom. We aren't always gonna agree. We are gonna be arguing about things for the rest of our lives, most likely. For example, the shirt with the giant leopard print heart on it is, indeed, hideous. But I love you so much and I am forever grateful for everything that you've ever done for me. You're pretty old now though so next year Ill probably just repost this and change the number to 49 and you'll think its the first time you read it so that's gonna be awesome. Anyway, I pray that God will speak to you and lead you and guide you and touch you and teach you this next year more than He ever has and that this will be your best year yet. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And always remember, if you ever feel like you're headed in the wrong direction whether that be in life, down the street, in the grocery store, anywhere...do like Shannon would and just turn around. ;D

"I thank my God every time I think of you."

Phillipians 1:3