On my own

Meet my sweet friend Shannon

Shannon and I met when I returned to New Orleans in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina. She was the roommate of another good friend, and we immediately clicked. We began walking together 4 nights a week with another wonderful friend (miss you, Katie!) and really got to know each other. She knew me before I'd even heard of Daniel Bramlett, she walked with me through the ups and downs of dating, and she rejoiced with me when we got engaged. It was only fitting that she be one of my bridesmaids!

Meet Jonathan - Shannon's fun and crazy husband

After they got married in 2007, Jonathan moved to seminary and began pursuing a degree also. God worked it out so that when we got married in Jan. 2008, we moved in the apartment directly across the hall from them. Lots of fun times were had between our two apartments. We always joked that we should just knock out our adjoining wall (we were across from each other, but also on the end of the building, so we shared a wall) and make a pathway so we could get to each others apartments without having to go into the hall. The seminary probably would have frowned on that, but it was fun to think about.

Fast forward to Spring 2010. Daniel and I had recently moved to Hughes Springs and Shannon and Jonathan were in their final year at the seminary. I received a call from Shannon one day saying that a miracle baby was on the way! You see, according to doctors, Shannon wasn't ever supposed to be able to have children. Aren't you thankful that God is SO MUCH bigger than doctors or what's "supposed" to be?! Needless to say, when I heard the news I was completely ecstatic and wanted to rush down to N.O. When I told Daniel, he was very excited too and said, "When she has that baby, you need to go see her!" I said, "by myself?!" He replied with, "sure!" Oh, I love my husband! :)

Sweet Hadley Cole McDuffie (Cole) was born on December 16, 2010. They then moved to Mississippi for Jonathan to take a youth minister position. So the plan was for Daniel's grandmother to come on Thursday to help with Riley and I would leave early Friday morning (Feb. 4) to head to Newton, MS.

GiGi arrived as planned

And then this happened Friday morning...

So needless to say, I didn't get to leave as planned. But, Saturday morning everything began to melt so I headed out. I made it to Newton safely and am so thankful I've gotten to meet and hold this adorable little guy!

What an awesome sight to see Shannon kissing her SON! God is so good!I definitely miss my boys, but I am very grateful to be here sharing this special time with friends! Thank you, again, my sweet husband for giving me this time away!