What's in a name?

When we found out we were expecting a baby girl and took great care in choosing her name, I sent out an email to our family. I wanted to post it on our blog page too for those of you who may not have seen the email explaining her name. Most of you know by now, that we are going to have a baby girl in August. Most of you also know how much we value the names we choose for our little ones. Carter Stokes and Summer Journey both have so much meaning in our lives and we did not want this little one to feel slighted in any way. We took longer than we have in the past to choose her name because we wanted it to be so very special as we are confident she is going to be to us! That being said we know many of you are so curious to know her name and we want to share in this special moment with each of you, though many of you are far away from us. The name God laid on on our hearts and the name we have chosen for our little girl is Tilly Brooke. We hope that all of you will begin to pray for her by name as we await her arrival. We chose the name Tilly because of our time in New Orleans. We lived in the "Gentilly" area of New Orleans. The seminary was located on Gentilly and the name of our apartments were Gentilly. Our time at seminary completely changed our marriage and our lives forever, we believe. We are confident that we would not be where we are today were it not for those two years spent in that special city. We wanted to take a part of that with us and pass it along to our children. We want to be constantly reminded of God's provision for us while we were living in New Orleans. We have always wanted to use the name Brooke because of a special friend in our lives. Brooke and I were prayer partners our first summer to work camp together in Nashville in 2003. Brooke prayed over me and with me all summer about moving to New Orleans. She also taught me about being a godly wife and what it means to submit to my husband. I was struggling with moving to New Orleans because that meant leaving my family again and not returning to school. Ironically enough, Brooke was not even married at the time! She is married now and she and her husband, Jason, live in California. They continue to be a godly example and encouragement to us through their ministry. We believe God used Brooke at a critical point in our lives to help lead us down the path He chose for us. (You can view Brooke's blog from my page to see what she and her husband are up to now!) We hope that you will find Tilly's name as precious and special as we do. We hope that you will continue to pray for our rapidly growing family. Carter and Summer have both been amazing blessings in our lives and we are excited to see how God is going to use them and baby Tilly to further His kingdom. Join us in praying that for our children.

Where does the time go?

Lots has happened in the O'Dell household since I last blogged! Our family is so busy! We have officially become residents of Austell by purchasing a house close to the church. We are so thankful for our home and so many people in our church family have helped us to make this transition as smoothly as possible! David has begun his doctoral classes at the seminary and is enjoying being a student once again. We celebrated Summer's first birthday with my family in Athens. Mama came and spent a week with us, which was such a treat! Carter and Summer went for their check-ups and boy have they grown! Carter weighed 29 pounds and is 37 1/2 inches tall! Our BIG boy has grown almost 4 inches in the last 6 months! One morning David and I looked at each other in disbelief because it literally seemed as though he had grown overnight! Amazing! Summer weighed 23 pounds 8 ounces and is 32 inches tall! She has grown 2 inches since her last check-up! They grow up WAY too fast! Speaking of check-ups and time slipping by, I am going every week to see the mid-wife now that we are nearing the end of the pregnancy! I cannot believe these nine months are almost over! We are scheduled to induce baby Tilly Brooke on August 19th if she does not decide to make a debut earlier on her own! It seems our babies always need a little coaxing, so we are prepared for that again. We are so excited to meet this little baby girl and continue adding to our family! We talk about baby Tilly being in Mommy's tummy a lot, so hopefully we are preparing Carter and Summer for their new sister! We look forward to sharing with you the news of her arrival!

Hanging out with friends in Arkansas

So, I have put up several posts from our trip to Arkansas, but here is one more. We were able to spend some time in Jonesboro with David's roommates from college and their families! It was wonderful to watch our children play together! We sure do wish they were closer to us! Here are some pictures of Carter and Summer playing Noah and Nia! Thanks for the pictures, Brad!

Summer's First 1st Birthday Party

While visiting David's family, we had a birthday party for Summer since our family in Arkansas will not be here for her first birthday! We had a wonderful celebration complete with a birthday hat, a precious cake, ice cream and lots of presents! We still cannot believe our little girl is turning one very soon! This year has flown by. Below are some pictures from her birthday party! As you can see the birthday girl was not the only one who had a ball, big brother, Carter, had so much fun too! Thank you Gigi and Papa for a wonderful party for Summer!