The Sessums Family: It's Summertime

Sitting here watching Peter Pan for about the 20th time this week! No really, we have watched it a lot and for that matter, we have watched way too much TV this week, been in the pool everyday, got some books from the library yesterday and enjoyed our YMCA while also scarfing down donuts and too much mountain dew. It's summer, y'all!

May was super busy but also really fun. We wrapped up our preschool year. If you're friends with me on Facebook or follow on instagram then you saw all that this little boy and I conquered our first year of homeschool. I started it out wanting a curriculum to keep us focused and make sure that he is keeping up with his peers academically but also I wanted to be laid back, remembering that he is in preschool and I firmly believe that he needs more time outside exploring bugs, rocks, sticks, trees, the rain, the sun, the clouds, the character of his heart, remembering who His creator and maker and lover of his soul is, more than learning anything else. If I have not laid that firm foundation of who he is and Who he belongs to then I have not done my job in both being a parent and teacher. This year taught us perserverance, honesty, grief, faithfulness, goodness, self control (to stay on track when all we wanted to do was be lazy).

I never thought that I would homeschool. Growing up, I had alot of plans. I'm a planner by nature (as far as the plan for my life is concerned) I dreamed of getting a college education in a job that I loved and could also make a living doing, I dreamed of marrying a wonderful, honest, protecting husband (and of course, handsome), I dreamed of marrying him in a dreamy wedding, being married for about 1.5-2 years and then having children, living in the same house all of our lives, my children growing up in Brandon, MS, I also already had pre-school and private school all planned out, I would have 3-4 children like stepping stones, to be finished having children by 30 so that we wouldn't be 50 years old and running after toddlers! I dreamed of putting my children in daycare at about 3 months old and resuming my dream job of scanning babies all day long, my kids going to school and me just enjoying the extra curriculur activities of their lives while also being able to dress them to a "t" and enjoy that full time income. As you can see, "my story" isn't quite the way that I planned. I don't write the story, I just live it, I obey what He tells me to do and I'm called to be faithful when things don't go as planned knowing that just because it isn't going as planned doesn't mean that the story doesn't have a plan.

Today, my life looks like this. Half the income that the degrees in our closet say we should have and the ARDMS registry where you can find my name as a registered sonographer (still under my maiden name because I'm a procrastinator). I landed my dream job just before I became pregnant with Walker at the ripe old age of 28 (just kidding). I did marry that wonderful husband that is super handsome and his heart is even better! He is more than I could or did ever dream about. I worked that dream job up until about 2 weeks before my baby was born and then at 5 months old, I knew that God wanted me to give it up. To be home full time. A few months after that, we felt like we needed to sell our house and move. We started thinking maybe out of state. We prayed, prayed, prayed some more. Then our house sold and we moved 1300 miles away. During all this I felt like I would homeschool Walker. Never did I ever think I would homeschool. Also, baby #2 took 3 years to make because of my husband going off to the NAVY. Yall know the rest. And this is my story; His story. Which now also is including loving on babies that will not come from my body as we enter into the Foster Care/Adoption world. It's crazy but I have never felt God so close to me as I do right now! His story is beautiful even though I can be so clumsy and make super big messes of it. And after this first homeschool year, something I thought I could not do, I am confident that He is by my side and His faithfulness will keep us on track as Isaiah taught us to be faithful with each breath we take really hoping that I'm pleasing to the Father and make Isaiah proud of me.

Speaking of Foster Care: We have one more home study to complete and also a little more paperwork. Hopefully we will be ready by the end of July (that's the goal) to be put on the list. We don't know how often we will have a child since our age is (0-2) and our city only has 1 baby as of now in the system, which is a wonderful thing that they don't, hopefully.

So that's about it. We are really enjoying where we are living. Right now, Daddy is home most every night (in the military world, we call that success!), we love our neighborhood and we have a clubhouse pool that we can swim in, we have some really good friends and some of them homeschool, too! We joined our local YMCA. Walker loves playing while I ~~kill myself~~ do bootcamp or Me and Dad get to workout together. We are excited about checking out Busch Gardens, Water World, the beaches here and camping this summer!

Here are some Pictures lately and our trip to Mississippi earlier in May:

The Last night of our foster training!