Leslie's Little Smittles: Our Story: All You Need is Faith

After deciding that we wouldn't have any more children (for fear that they would be born unhealthy) I kept a conviction about my belief that I wanted the Lord to be in charge of our family, but we were just so overwhelmed by our life at the moment that we just kept chugging along. That is until I kept having this nagging feeling in my heart. The one that said, "Have faith in me! Trust me!"
You would have thought I would have learned that lesson when I had a newborn unable to breathe for herself, but honestly, learning to trust the Lord is the hardest thing to do here on earth. It's so easy to just take it upon your self to be in charge of your life. The problem with that is that as soon as there is something that you can't control you are in trouble.

Our family Halloween 2007.

My man and I willing to do just about anything to make our kids smile! HA!

Finally, after several months of that feeling of wanting to have another baby and feeling the urging feeling to have faith in God in every situation I talked to Manly. I remember that it was after Olivia's third birthday party.

At Olivia's third ballet birthday party.

Love this picture of Lulu!

As soon as I started the conversation he knew what I was going to say and he said he'd been feeling the exact same way. SO, we decided when the Lord was ready we were too. 6 weeks later, on Manly's birthday, I found out I was pregnant again. I decided to tell him by wrapping up the pregnancy tests and giving them to him as a "surprise gift." Ha! Here is the progression of his reaction!

You can tell his face is red in this one, but he's still not sure of what he's seeing.

When he finally sees that it is in fact a positive pregnancy test. Two in fact.

Taking a moment to breathe. He said, "Has it even been LONG enough for you to be pregnant?!" Ha!

Deciding to flash me his killer smile and just go with it!

We spent time each and every day praying for the development of that baby in my tummy. We knew that if he or she was born with problems that the Lord would get us through, but we were having FAITH that I would deliver a healthy baby. I wanted a boy so badly that when, at around 20 weeks when we found out we were having another girl I was a little sad. I quickly recovered and we sat about getting ready for our Addison.

Our family on Easter 2008. I was several months pregnant.

My Addi tummy.

Our family right before Addi.

Love this Lulu picture.

I was scheduled to have an induction on July 6th, but on July 3rd I woke up knowing that she was going to come before that. I called my parents to come knowing that she was coming. By the time they got there my contractions were a minute apart. Since Manly had gone to school they loaded me up and we went to the hospital.

This is what my belly looked like the day Addi was born. Whoa.

I was determined to have a natural delivery, so I worked through the pain for TWELVE hours before she was FINALLY born right in the middle of a Fourth of July thunderstorm. Addison FAITH Smittle has been making a bang since then! Oh, and did I mention she was the picture of health and born at 39 weeks?! She was the most beautiful little lady we'd ever seen. She had the most amazing hair! Her sisters were NUTS over her, and Olivia thought she was her own little doll!

My sweet Addi. I kept asking, "She's beautiful, but is she OK?! Is she OK?!" Did I mention I labored through 12 hours without drugs?! Yowzah!

My handsome man with his girl.

Our family of FIVE! This was just a few minutes after Addi was born.

Lulu with her Addi. They still have such a sweet relationship.

The girls in the hospital visiting with each other.

Addison looked like a doll she was so perfect and beautiful and petite.

Me and my girls!

We brought that little firecracker home and her joy was just the thing we needed to finish up our time in NWA. Manly finished his degree with honors, got an amazing job with UAMS, and we moved back "home" as soon as we could. The next year was probably among the happiest years of our life. We loved being back in Conway, we were part of an amazing church, and life with three girls was SO much fun! We had decided to have faith that God would provide for us, and he had shown up in a HUGE way!

When we found out Addi was coming we sold our tiny car and bought this beauty. I loved this van!

Look at this beautiful girl! She was the BEST baby!

Amidst all the craziness we decided Olivia needed a little love, so we celebrated Olivia all September long with a different fun activity each day.

Oh, we're just having dinner in the living room tent.

SO cute!

Lulu trying her hand at makeup. Ha!

While we were in NWA Lulu started the Awana program. Here she is ready for crazy hair night!

Our happy family of five at the pumpkin patch.

Our family Fall of 2008.

Lulu turning FOUR!

KK turning TWO.

Addi being so cute I just about can't stand it. 3 months.

Manly and I celebrated five years of marriage.

Halloween 2008. We went as the characters from Charlotte's Web because that was Livi's favorite book.

We spent a lot of time visiting dad on his lunch break. This was from KK's second birthday. My prayer is that he NEVER shaves his head like that again! Ha!