My mom, Anicia, was a motivator. She was full of life and energy and was such an encourager! She was generous and loved people well too. Mom also had some rough times. We’re so thankful she credited God for taking her out of those times of sadness and giving her times of true peace even when times were tough. And she loved well. Whenever her “going home” anniversary comes around like it did a few days ago, we think of her and appreciate the many reasons why we miss her and her sweet love.

Self-publishing books has been a rewarding process for our family. Seeing hard work pay off no matter what we’re doing is great, isn’t it? With publishing books, we sometimes have to call a project done and other times put it through the revision process.

I don’t know about you, but I want to have deep, meaningful relationships with people. Deep, meaningful relationships aren’t possible, though, without both parties showing love, being truthful, and being authentic — not curating a persona that isn’t real.

Today, on my first day of retired life, it's hard to believe that I joined the Navy 24 years ago. 24 years seems like a long time until it's already past. Looking back, though, 24 years pasted so quickly.

Twenty years ago, we stood together in front of our family and friends and before God to become man and wife. What a wonderful thing that it’s been to be married to you, Franicia.

9 children and 19 (almost 20) years into our marriage, you still truly amaze me at the woman and Mommy that you are, Franicia. How do you find time and energy to love and worship God, love your fellow man, love me, and love and teach our children in a way that causes people to wonder and want to know more about the God that you serve?

Can you believe that 2021 is almost over? This year has been a busy year for us with lots of exciting changes and developments. One of the highlights of this year was our discovering that Franicia is pregnant with a precious soul who we expect to be welcoming into this world sometime next summer. We also found out the timing of Tim’s transition from the Navy to civilian life also next summer that will likely coincide with our relocating again.

A little over 19 years ago, Franicia and I said, “I do”…actually, we said it twice and we’re pronounced “man and wife” twice, but that story is for another time. 😂 We never in our wildest dreams would’ve imagined that we would be blessed with 9 wonderful, precious children. I don’t think that we would’ve ever dreamed that either that we would’ve moved so many times, experienced so many wonderful things, or walked through the trials that we have experienced.

After such an amazing and blessed trip to Dallas/Ft.Worth to make the most of Tim’s scheduled work trip, we arrived home three weeks ago with slight signs of a cold. Though we were being cautious and hardly went anywhere beyond our lovely Airbnb, we think we might have caught something at a gas station or perhaps a restaurant that we visited. The sickness ended up being the flu which wore us out. To be safe, we had a couple of our family members tested for “the virus,” but the test turned out negative. We had a few good days or so where we thought we might all be past it, but then experienced something we don’t ever think we’ve gone through before…