our beautiful life: August 2015

My little Summer is 5 years old, FIVE. I may or may not have had to hold back a few tears coming to gripes with this milestone.

Being a mom, honestly and truly is like having your children run around with YOUR heart.

If you are not yet a parent, you wont get it, you cant.

But it is just that and it is the scariest & best thing loving something so much. I thank God every day for giving me my 2 girls. I cant even imagine doing anything else but being their mommy, the best mom I can be, as hands on as I can, and being their for there every second of their every day life. This is my job, my calling & my choice.

I strive to do my very very best at it.

One thing I think we should all remember when raising our children is that we are raising little hearts. & That is not something to take lightly.

If I fail at everything but succeed in being an amazing mom then I have done my job.

(& a wife of course! cause thats a huge part as well)

My first born, Summer Victoria Fudge.

Mommy- "What do you want to be when you grow up?

Summer- "A doctor, a dentist, a mommy, a worship leader, & a pastor"

I am not the mom to laugh and say "haha! you cant be all those things silly."

I say "Thats amazing and I think those are all great!! You can be anything you want to be and you would be great at every one of those things!".

- Don't ever make your child feel like they are dreaming to big or to high.

Don't ever put any doubt in the heart.

Throw the books away. Parenting is not a philosophy. Being a good mother does not mean getting your baby to sleep through the night at 3 months. It does not mean enlisting the help of a nanny or expert. Your instincts are the best guide to follow, not a manual. Being a mother means trudging through the muck. It means improvising. It means finding the best fit for you and your child. It means allowing others to judge your choices without doubting yourself. It means doing your best and knowing it.

Summer- One day when you are big enough you are going to read this. I want to to know that you are an amazing little girl who is already wise beyond her years. You have so much compassion for animals (you get this from your momma ;)) for children, and you always want to bring a smile to peoples face. You care about other peoples feelings, not just your own. You are energetic it, always up for an adventure. You love to wrestle with daddy and talk about super hero's and ninja turtles, but you adore princesses and all things girly. You are very gentle and sweet spirited. You save flies from our house, you carefully and gently catch them and let them go free outside

(still not sure how you manage this, but you do!).

You are beyond forgiving with your little sister, London, who loves to push your buttons and sometimes just hits you out of the blue, you just stand there and softly and sweetly say "no hitting".

You love Jesus and can't wait to learn more and more about the bible. You love your family and try hard to constantly work on being a good listener to mommy and daddy. You are forgiving and you are a loyal friend. You are not afraid to meet new people and you are always open to new friends. Your a good listener and a good talker. you love to learn new things. You love family time and you know the importance of it. You are thankful and love to list everything that you are blessed to have. You believe the best always and look to the bright side of every situation. You are excited for the future and know nothing can stop you! You are a true worshiper and enjoy every minute of our worship time. You are a powerful prayer and love to teach your little sister about Jesus and praying and you set a great example.

You are amazing.

We love you so much and we are beyond proud of the big girl you are growing up to be. Keep loving Jesus and keep putting him first in everything you do. Keep reaching for your goals

Mommy, Daddy & London love you so much.

Keep being a shining star.

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Tomorrow Adam and I celebrate 6 years of marriage. So I thought I would do a "marriage" post.

(I am by no means a marriage expert. Nor do I think I know it all because I definitely do not.)

I have learned a lot in the last 6 years of what marriage is, what it means and what it takes to stay married.

Love is an unconditional commitment, not a fickle feeling.

Couples who talk about “falling out of love” don’t really have a grasp of what love actually means. Love, by its very nature, isn’t a fairy tale feeling, but a commitment.
love is a story with no ending.

“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” 1 Corinthians 13:7

Every wife needs love and every husband needs respect.

One of the toughest parts of marriage is giving love when your spouse is acting unlovable or giving respect when they’re acting disrespectful, but it’s so important to do it. God gives us His best when we’re at our worst, and He calls us to do that for each other in marriage. People usually need love most when they “deserve” love least.

“So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” Ephesians 5:33

God is full of love, and the Bible doesn’t give many examples of things God “hates,” but divorce is on the list. Because God has so much love for marriage, his heart breaks over the pain of divorce (and our hearts should break too).

“For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel.
“To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.” Malachi 2:16

If you are in a second marriage, please don’t read this and feel judged or shamed. When I read everything the Bible has to say about grace, and the examples of all the great leaders in the Bible who fell far short of God’s standard, I’m comforted in knowing God gives second chances and new beginnings. You can’t change the past, but
you can start now and build a new future with each other.

Back on subject here. . Marriage was God's plan. Marriage is a good thing and a God thing. You should always put Jesus center of your marriage, cause without him, Yikes, thats a scary future ;)

A marriage takes three.

God created marriage not just to be a man and a woman, but rather, a man and a woman in a growing relationship with each other and with God. The more you love God, the more capacity you will have to love each other.

“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8

I am so blessed to be married to the man that I am. Thats not to say we don't have struggles. But, we don't just give up on our marriage because it is "hard work" & because tough times come. I got married young. I got married at 20 years old. Adam was 27. That is a pretty young age now a days to get married (my age, not adam ;)), I realize that. I knew from a young age that my calling was to be a wife, homemaker and a stay at home mom to my kids. From age 9 I knew that. It was all I wanted and knew thats what I was going to do, through my teenage years that dream never changed. God put that in my heart, I then I met Adam and the rest is history. We started dating in November 2008, got engaged April 2009 and married August 2009 and pregnant with our first child December 2009. Yep, thats fast thanks for noticing ;).
(FYI, I knew Adam for a couple years BEFORE we dated, so it is not like I met him, dated him and married him all within a year, ok people, I can see your minds being like "holy crap" ha ha calm down. I kept a close far away eye on him to make sure he was a "good boy".) He passed the test.
I am now a wife, homemaker and mom of 2 little girls who I get to stay home with everyday & I love it. Its what Jesus placed in my heart and it has come to pass.

In marriage sometimes you have to change and grow. Sometimes that seems impossible and is a scary thing to do, it goes outside of your comfort zone. But its necessary and a good thing. You haven't "arrived" you always need to grow, always need to work on yourself and be the best you / spouse you can be. You have never "arrived".

Now for some photos of us.

Our relationship started with Adam taking me on motorcycle rides. Thats what drew me to him in the first place ;). If you know me you know I love motorcycles. They are so much fun. We did this all the time together.

Our first date. & a photo-booth picture.

Dancing in scrooge together.

(which is why to this day I call him Fred, people seem so confused, which I get, so now ya know. He played Fred in Scrooge and he never lost the name with me ;))

We did rehearsals every Saturday together for hours. This lead to Adam officially asking to date me. But before he asked me he first asked my Dad for permission to date me. I mean come on, thats pretty sweet, who does that?. I don't know if its because my Dad is the Pastor or if he did this with all his girlfriends? Although, I know he didn't so you decide ;)

Alright skipping forward to APRIL 2009. Adam came along on our family trip to Mexico and thats when he put together his grand plan to propose to me. It was amazing. So thoughtful and took lots of planning on his part. I couldn't have thought a better proposal up if i tried. & I honestly was completely surprised (which is pretty hard to do). Adam and I never looked at engagement rings together or anything like that. I didn't have a ring or style picked out. He choose it all on his own, sneaky sneaky.

The song playing in the background of this video is the "poem" that Adam wrote me that I read when he proposed. On our wedding day he totally surprised me when he had Jordan sang it. again, sneaky sneaky.