It is well.

Here I am, again! I think I am having a posting frequency rate 100% better than the past? What do you think? Ha! I am currently in Kansas City for my nephew, Ethan's, baptism tomorrow! I can't believe the little guy is coming up on 2 months old! It is so crazy how time flies and even more crazy at the amount of love I have for this sweet boy! By the way, since I have began a photo journey with my new wonderful trusty camera, with my main subject being Ethan, I made shutterfly photoblog. Now, it is titled "Melroe's Place Photography," and one might say, she is not a photographer. You are correct, I am not. But it is the photography extension of my blog, so you get the name! I hope you enjoy like I do, here is the link to my photoblog. It is a little bare because I am just getting it started.

After a full day of travel, it was such a welcomed sight to see Jessica, Pat and Ethan!  Everyone is doing well, and Ethan.... let's just say he is wonderful and precious as ever. God has really blessed them with a GREAT baby and in turn blessed Ethan with amazing parents! It is such an honor to be the God Mother to him and be apart of his Baptism! I will be sure to post a lot of pictures very soon! We got some excellent pictures tonight! The moment I pulled out my camera and began gushing over him, he let the sweetest smile slip across is perfect face and I got to have that as my first snap shot! I always knew he was a big fan of his "Auntie!"

Unfortunately, due to Jon's leave date being so soon, he was unable to come. I know he was just as crushed as I was that he couldn't. But that is the nature of the beast, right? I drove up to Bentonville alone to meet my parents and did my usual "radio surfing" as I like to call it. I seek for different channels and will stop when a song catches my ear and move on when I get bored. It does help pass the time surprisingly. Those of you who know me and my obsession of music, time alone in the car means one thing... jam out time! Well, this time I got bored with surfing for tunes and resorted to my CD case that I have had since about end of junior high... a case shaped like a cheeseburger. It is quite unforgettable. Anyway! I pulled out a CD randomly and it was an unmarked burnt CD (man, what happened to the days where that was a thrill!). I popped it in. The first song was Selah's rendition of the hymn, "It is Well." I listened to their beautiful harmonies fill the car and the words began to just flood over me. I have read the story about the composer of the hymn and the meaning behind it and meditated on it. Long story short: A gentleman who was immigrating from Europe to America enduring a lot of hardships and tragedies during his voyage and he wrote "It is Well" in the wake of his suffering. I really encourage you to research it. You can gather the meaning of the hymn based on the lyrics but to know the story makes it sink in. The beauty of music is that each listener will take away a different interpretation of the song based on their life experiences, current circumstances and personalities. No different realization happened in my car this morning. God overwhelmed me with peace about this upcoming deployment as though he was saying to me, "It will be okay. I am in control." For that moment, it was "well" with my soul. After I was finished repeating the song a couple of times, I went back to my radio brigade and landed on the christian station. I love NWA, they have a TON of Christian stations! The song, "White Flag" by Chris Tomlin (I believe) was on and has been one of my favorites. It is about surrender to Jesus. Again, I felt as though He was telling me to surrender my anxiety and that it would be okay. I was blessed today to have those moments in the car. God is good, all the time, he is good.

With that, I am going to bed! Live. Laugh. Love.

Melissa