Tuesday's Best: Married Style

as soon as we connected this morning i heard mohamed yelling, 

"mom, mom, MOM!  i heard about the married!!!"

in sierra leone everything is a married.  'we are going to the married', 'how was the married?', never a wedding.  and if the other side of the world has heard about our married, well then i guess it's official.  josh and i had our second ceremony, a little less sweaty and a lot more legal, in our backyard here in nashville on saturday.  it was perfect.  just our families.  a couple of friends to make sure our mimosas stayed full.  absolutely no stress.  just perfect.

in the spirit of our tendency to do things a little differently:

my dad walked me down the driveway.  aisles are so 2012.

the neighbors stood on their side porch silently holding hands and watching.

josh surprised me with an engagement ring after putting my wedding band on my finger.

because of this i got a little excited and accidentally kissed him before the whole 'kiss your bride' bit.

like i said, just perfect.

a handful of aunties at the covering popped in to our skype call to wish us well this morning.  lots of mrs. garrett's and laughter and ooooh's over my bouquet that is still sitting on my dining room table.

i give you tuesday's best.  married style.

gerald lost his second tooth.  

who doesn't like looking at life sized cardboard cutouts of themselves?

auntie love.

floral, cheetah, and stripes.  we love our patterns.

bouquet.

prettiest things i've ever seen.  coolio braid included.

happy tuesday's best.

xo,

m

Full

i never thought my life would look like this.  never ever.

i spent the day writing with my good friend, sean.  we wrote a song that i am so very proud of, which is a big deal in itself, at his home studio which meant that we got to take breaks downstairs with his wife mae and their sweet baby abi.  abi made her way home to tennessee from ghana, the place of her birth, this last fall.  a sweet reminder of what josh and i are fighting for ourselves these days.

i got an e-mail this afternoon from my friend ashley, who is exactly who i wish i had been at her young age. she is living at the covering for 6 months and working primarily with the special needs kids.  she is also one of the most courageous people i know.  and she just turned 19.  yesterday.  she sent a snapshot of a hilarious moment she captured between our twins, gerald & geraldine, who were digging into a box of chalk in their underwear.  i can't tell you what it means to get these kinds of normal life updates from her.  i am beyond fortunate to not miss these sorts of moments.

i spent the evening with three of my dear friends who are in the thick of this africa business with me.  one of them founded the raining season, one of them is our travel coordinator, and one of them is our marketing and merchandising coordinator.  see?  the very thick of it.  after dinner we made our way back to our founders home where we were greeted by her 5 children, 3 of whom are the first children to leave the covering since the adoption ban was lifted last year.  these children have been fought for, prayed for, wanted, missed, and loved for years on end waiting for their arrival.  and they are thriving.  they cuddled with me, hugged me, danced for me, and force fed me brownies.  ok.  no one has ever force fed me brownies.  they might have forcibly removed them from my death grip to save me from myself, but that's the only way the words 'force' and 'brownie' have ever been used in a sentence together where i'm concerned.

i came home to my husband.  well, husband on african soil and in my heart.  he'll legally become my husband this saturday in a small family only ceremony that we'll hold in the backyard of our first home together.  my dress is hanging in the closet in a bedroom that will, God willing, belong to our children before the year is up.

i want to play this day on repeat.  i want to bathe in the accents that our founder's children share with our own.  i want the song sean and i wrote about this adoption boat we are in to be the soundtrack to every day i have left to live.  i want to laugh with my friends that truly understand my every move.  i want to always come home to my husband greeting me at the door reminding me to pick up his pants from the tailor so he isn't half naked at our wedding.

tonight, for the first time in awhile, i feel... well, full.

chairs are for wimps.

capri.

melissa and rosemary.

maddox and nash.  dance party time.

The Peach Truck

i had the sweetest friday afternoon with my friend and old roommate today.  a mini tennessee snow storm, leftover baked spaghetti, and a sweet reminder that the lives of old friends can be so different than they once were, yet still so intertwined.

big things are happening for the lovely jess, her 5th generation georgia peach farmer husband, and their deliciously homegrown mom and pop dream life at the peach truck.

check them out here, and get your taste buds ready for peach season y'all.  

Tuesday's Best, Wednesday Style

a day late and a million dollars short.  that's what they always say around our house.  and by 'they' i mean me.

it's tuesdays' best, wednesday style.

tennessee.

all focused on one thing?  it's a christmas miracle.

peek...

...a boo

Tuesday's Best : My Favorite Collection Yet

20 seconds before gerald vomited on m&m.  even when he's not feeling well he's smiling this big.

big love.

the return of the coolio braid.

mohamed started singing a song from church and sweet mamie threw her hands up
 and started singing along with everything in her.  love this girl.

whistling and a hometown shout out for mom.  golden gophers!

Tuesday's Best

gerald sang us a song.

mohamed played drums with josh and told us how he was baptized in the ocean on saturday.

mamie told us about her school work and we talked about the 3 children who left the center on sunday and arrive in america, their new home, today.

geraldine got bored and went outside to play.

everyone got stickers.

just as it should be.

happy tuesday's best,

m

6.

drums.

twins = twice as many stickers on the wall.

one soldier down and my favorite lone tooth.

so. stinkin'. pretty.

Book of John

tim mcgraw has a new record out.  

one of my dear friends, jenn, has the title track, 'two lanes of freedom'.

another of my friends and respected co-writers has an incredibly moving song on this record called 'book of john'.

this is what music is all about people.  this.

what a beautiful way to honor your beautiful mom.  i'm so proud of you, greg.

listen/buy here.

(from greg)

A lot of my close friends already know this story, but for those interested in where The Book Of John came from and why it is such a personal sounding song, here's the rest of the story… Last year I was visiting at the hospital with my mom in Boston while she was battling cancer and my dad asked me and my brother to run home and get them a few items, sweatshirts, overnight bag, etc. . When I went into his closet (first time ever) I noticed a shelf of keepsakes, pictures, etc. The private collection that everyone has somewhere tucked away, that you see every day, that reaffirms who you are, what you love, that all at once lifts you and grounds you. There were pictures of mom from the 1970's, a bunch of us kids climbing on my dad, his parents, sports memorabilia, etc

The day I got back to Nashville I had my first co-write with Jon Nite. A tremendous writer. I was so emotional given the circumstances of mom's illness and the difficult trip I had just come back from. Being the great writer that he is, we went ahead and wrote the song that was in the room that day, which was Book Of John based on the experience of getting to know a loved one at a whole new level by discovering their hidden scrapbook after they've died. That's right, a death ballad on a first time co-write.

Months went by and later that spring mom passed away. The day after she passed, I was in her office, tears flowing, going through her photo albums gathering pictures for the memorial service and came across a black binder filled with her 'private' collection of awards, letters, pictures of her and dad as kids, etc. the Book of Mom if you will. So at the exact moment that I'm flipping through the pages weeping (literally the EXACT moment), my phone starts vibrating and it's Jon sending me a text that Tim had called for a lyric on Book Of John.

Two days later on the day of Mom's funeral, Tim recorded it. Tim friggin recorded it on the day of her funeral, are you kidding me? As happy as one is about a McGraw cut, it's taken me a while to hear the song again after Mom died, but I have to say... it sounds pretty great to hear it again now. I hope that knowing this story you will enjoy it as well. Thanks Jon.Thanks Tim. And of course thanks Mom. .