Matthew took this picture yesterday at Aunt Jen’s House - and I couldn’t help myself - I had to post…

I think I have the cutest, most incredible boy in the whole world!

When Don and I made the decision for me to step down as Creative Arts Director at The ROCK, we knew it was because our children were the most important thing in our lives. Reagan is the best gift I have ever been given - more than I could EVER dream to ask for. Rylee is coming in seven weeks and I can only imagine how much more love my little heart can muster. God’s gifts are always perfect and I can’t wait to finally see this little girl face to face and kiss her about a million times. This is why we made our decision - so I could stay home more and focus my attention on them.

Since deciding to make this change, I have realized that God’s intentions are far greater than we first thought. They usually are…

He’s been keeping me up at night - bombarding my heart and my mind with new ideas and big fat dreams. I was worried that my ability to create would be severely limited when I gave up my full time “payed” position and that I would be relegated to the nether-regions of mommy hood for the rest of my days. What I have discovered is that giving myself the room - clearing my mind of TOO much - has given me the permission to start thinking again and believing again in what I could truly accomplish if I decide to make it happen.

• I did it! I actually remembered to brain dump on Monday - thanks, Tim for the reminder.

• Last week was CRAZY! So much is going on in every area of my life right now - I am almost overwhelmed, but then I remember that God never puts more on us than we can handle and so I trust in that grace and carry on!
• I’ve been trying to put together budgets for GAFA’s upcoming 08-09 season - trying to predict some unpredictable things has proven to be quite interesting to say the least. When God starts putting BIG, FAT dreams in your heart it requires you to think outside the box and plan with lots of faith. (tempered with a good does of practical reality, though) I can’t wait to see how He provides for this vision He has put in my heart - I can’t see how it will all come together but I am excited…
• Reagan spent the night with Nana and Papa on Friday night so Don and I got to go on a date. That hasn’t happened in a while and we had a great time. We went to the opening concert of the Airlie Gardens summer Jazz series. This is my favorite thing to do during the summer - every 1st Friday of the month they have a big concert under the oaks. Everyone brings a picnic dinner and the kids run around and have a great time. Two of my dear friends are playing the next two months. Benny Hill (I went to college with Benny at UNCW) will be playing the 1st Friday night in June and David Pray (a wonderful friend to me and to this ministry) will be playing the 1st Friday night in August. Be sure to go check them out. Don and I will be there!

• Saturday, we had our second Saturday tech rehearsal for GAFA’s upcoming show, “Creation”. The girls are doing an amazing job and you do not want to miss this event! Be sure to purchase your tickets from any of our students, at The ROCK, or on line HERE. You can also stop by the church/studio offices anytime and pick up tickets for the Friday night, May 16th show or the Saturday afternoon, May 17th show. They are $5 in advance or $7 at the door. Thanks to Alpha Mortgage, Perry’s Emporium, Beth Simcha, Jeff and Judy Spedding and The ROCK for their generous sponsorships of this event

• This was the picture at my house Saturday night after a full day of work and punching off the honey-do list. Molly thinks she is a lap dog…and despite what my husband may say about this, he likes it…

• Yesterday’s service was really great. My team did such a wonderful job leading the people into worship. I am always so honored to work with this incredible group of men and women. The set list was

1. Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
2. The Time Has Come - Hillsong United
3. For Who You Are - Hillsong
4. Hosanna - Brooke Fraser (I never get tired of this song - and Haley, you rocked it, girl!

• Dad continued to minister about the upcoming transition. He always does such an wonderful job of walking our people through something that may initially be difficult - he has wisdom beyond my ability to comprehend and I am thrilled that he and mom will continue to be a vital part of the life of this house even after PB is set as the senior pastor in August. I hope you are all communicating both your support and your observations to him and to Bryan. This is an exciting time and I pray that all of us will get on board and support this new season of ministry. You can download an MP3 of last week’s as well as yesterday’s message HERE by the end of the day tomorrow.
• This week promises to be another CRAZY one! Pray for us as we countdown to next weekend and as I make preparations to welcome Baby Rylee into the world. There is much to do and I need the grace of God and the support of my family and friends to make it happen! Thanks, everyone - you don’t know how much you all mean to me!

I can’t seem to stay in the habit of actually posting my weekend brain dump on Mondays…Tuesdays seems to be a much more realistic goal -

• We had our first Saturday tech rehearsal for the GAFA production, Creation. With three weeks left before the real deal it is easy to get overwhelmed with all of the things that have to get done. But everyone did a great job and it was obvious that they have all been working very hard. This is truly going to be a beautiful show - full of the wonder and creativity of our God. I want to honor Him with what we produce in this show…
• If you haven’t made plans to come to the show, DO IT NOW! You don’t want to miss it, I promise you. There are two shows - one Friday, May 16th at 7pm and one Saturday, May 17th at 3pm. Tickets are only $5 and can be purchased from any GAFA student, on-line HERE, or at The ROCK the next two Sundays.
• If you want to make a financial contribution to Glory Academy so that we can continue to impact this community with excellence in the arts, give us a call in our office. (910-602-5302) You can purchase an ad to go in our program or just donate as a sponsor. Either way, you are supporting an amazing ministry in this community!
• Sunday was incredible. So many new things happening all at once and my head is spinning! The stage looked amazing. You can go here and see pics of the transformation. Carolyn is doing a great job - as always - and we are so honored to have her on our staff because she always goes above and beyond what is expected and gives her absolute BEST to whatever she sets her hands to do. (Thanks!)
• Pastor Ron made an BIG FAT HAIRY announcement Sunday morning. In August - on our church’s 20th anniversary - he will set Bryan as the new senior pastor of this church and step into a new role and new season of ministry himself. If you weren’t in the service to witness this, you MUST listen to the MP3 of the message so you can be a part of helping us spread the excitement! Carolyn should have it posted sometime today.
• God is really stirring some things in my heart concerning GAFA - HUGE things that scare the heck out of me - but I know that there is provision for all things that He puts in our hearts to do. I will be sharing some of this with you later - too much to put in this post. Just be praying for me and my staff as we navigate through the waters of change and expansion. It’s going to be a fun ride!
• 8 1/2 weeks to go before baby Rylee arrives! Time is flying by…

Yea - so Reagan spends three days a week with this family and they teach him to fight with big sticks… Watch and laugh, people! I stole this video from Matthew -

He’s the love of my life - and in 10 weeks there’s going to be another one to get completely lost in…

Wow - what a weekend…

My team led worship Friday night and Saturday for a conference held at the church - it was a ton of fun and, as always, my team did an amazing job! I have to say that I am always grateful for the grace of God - leading worship three times in one weekend is not easy even when you aren’t 31 weeks pregnant!

The announcement of my job transition was made Sunday morning. I was humbled by the response of our people. Thank you, everyone, for your support and understanding of this decision. I am so looking forward to serving GAFA in a BIGGER way and continuing my involvement in the volunteer arts teams of The ROCK. Ya’ll are not going to get rid of me yet!

The lights are in and training begins this week! Carolyn, you are amazing and this church is beyond blessed to have you on board with us. Thanks for all of the extra time and brain power you put into this project!

The painters arrived this morning to transform our stage. The awful pale beige is leaving us and in it’s place is this beautiful black wall! I am SOOOOOO excited!

I would like to congratulate Johnny Fuller for being the only human on the planet that can break a wireless microphone just by the sheer force of his vocal volume. (thanks for the comic relief during worship yesterday..)

The excitement continues in the halls of Glory Academy. I snapped this picture today of little Serena as she tried on her Giraffe costume for our “Creation” production next month. Isn’t she adorable?

Carolyn has been posting like a crazy woman today. Geez - you would think there was something to be excited about around here.

Go check it out and see what all the fuss is about.

And if I haven’t mentioned it in a while - she is amazing and we couldn’t do any of this around here without her. Ya’ll give her some lovin’ - K?

Wilmington celebrated the annual Azalea Festival this weekend - we had fabulous weather and the azaleas were gorgeous! Tons of fun things to do around town and especially downtown. Saturday, Celebration Dance Company from Glory Academy of Fine Arts performed on two stages and did a total of about an hour of performances - they did an amazing job and I was SO proud of them! Thank you, Casey, Melanie and Lynne for all of your hard work to put all of this together!

This was our last outreach event of this season - these girls have worked tirelessly to minister to this community for the past nine months and the parents have all been so supportive of the vision of the academy. Below are a few pictures from the event - let me know what you think!

So, tonight I shared some big news with my incredible creative arts team at The Rock. I have to admit that I’ve had major anxiety knowing I was going to have to break this news to them - even though I have been simultaneously thrilled by what God is about to allow me to do. You see, when my second child is born in about 10 weeks, I am going to have the amazing opportunity to stay at home with Reagan and Rylee and give them my full mommy attention! In mid to late June, I will be stepping down as Creative Art’s Pastor here at this amazing church that I have served full time for the past 10 years.

I will remain as Director of Glory Academy of Fine Arts and be able do a majority of that work load from home. I have such a wonderful staff and a school full of incredible families and I am really looking forward to being able to give more of my brain power to seeing this amazing ministry become more successful in this community.

This has been a decision that has been made through much prayer and discussion with my husband and some people very close to me and I am very excited that God has directed me in this new season of our lives. I believe there are several things that God is going to allow me to give my attention to during this time and I am so very excited about all of them.

1. My children are a gift from the Father. Even though I have had amazing people who have cared for Reagan for the past 2 1/2 years, I have grieved every day that I have had to hand him over to someone else. I can not tell you how blessed I feel to have the opportunity to give Reagan and Rylee more of my time and care - they are the biggest ministry opportunity that God has ever given to me. I am humbled by these gifts from the Lord and scared to death that I will never measure up to what they really need from me. (but by the grace of God….)
2. I can’t wait to be a high-capacity volunteer in the arts ministry at The ROCK. It has been a long time since I’ve had the chance to serve without it being my job and I am passionate about remaining on the team in whatever capacity the new leader asks me to be. My heart is still here and I am so excited about the vision of this house and how I can contribute my skills to seeing the vision fulfilled. You WON’T see me sitting on the back row…
3. Glory Academy has been a gift from the Lord to this community and I have been blessed to be a part of it. My attention has been divided for the past three years as I have tried to successfully direct two full time ministries. I feel this is such a wonderful chance for me to focus most of my creative energy on building this amazing team of dancers and artists for the restoration of the arts in the church.
4. I am so excited about walking through the process of bringing on a new team member to this ministry staff. There is a new level that we’re about to step up to - a whole other level of anointing, leadership, creative intensity and passionate worship - and I am honored that I am being asked to be a part of the search process. We ask you to pray with us that God would supernaturally direct us to the right person quickly…this baby is coming fast! :

Let me close this post by saying that I have been incredibly honored to serve with some of the most amazingly talented people on this earth for the past 10 years. At times I have felt completely inept to do this job God has called me to do - but His grace has sustained me and given me every good and perfect gift that I have needed to see purpose fulfilled. The journey is not over for me in this house - I have the opportunity to remain a part of this team and I am so excited to continue on this pursuit of vision. I covet your prayers during this season of transition for me, my family and this team.

Here we go!