A Better Plan

This morning the home phone rang at the crack of dawn and it was her.

It was my first born gift. 

My Macey Girl.  

That sweet thing that still sits in my lap and has a
thick as Aunt Jemima syrup southern drawl that melts my heart every single time I hear it.

She has a "sing songy" professional happy person personality and can have me in stitches within minutes.

I love my baby girl. Twenty one years and eight months old worth of love.

With a heart the size of Texas and a personality that could land her a talk show of her very own.

She has a razor sharp quick wit and I mean razor sharp beyond her years.

She can hold her own....Lord can she ever.

She is an old soul. A lover of children, home, family and every hair care product ever made.

She walks with a quiet faith. I love that about her....

I've watched her grow and blossom and hit some bumps during these 21 years and 8 months.

I've watched the very definition of grace be made manifest in her life and watched her begin to walk in her own understanding of that very word.

As I was listening to her share her world with me this morning, while stepping over toddlers hanging on my legs. While packing the Star Wars lunch box, while trying to rescue a naked three year old who had accidentally locked himself inside the SUV. While trying to find just one pair of matching knee socks.

I stopped everything and remembered.

When it was just us.

In January of 1990 on the tenth day.

When God Himself called me to my life long dream of becoming a Mother.

There wasn't a bring home outfit, or birth announcement or a wedding band on my left hand.

But He was there. Hovering over me and my brand new baby girl. I realize that now....

And I had never loved anything as much as I loved that child.

 I was eighteen years old and not a dime to my name but I loved her.....

I didn't know the proper and exact "by the book" way to do things and did not have the money that would afford giving her the most beautiful nursery and all the things that go along with that.

But I loved her.

I wasn't anything close to the perfect Mother and made many wrong decisions.

But I loved her.

And no hell or high water was going to take her away from me.

We walked through our fair share of those very things.  Book worthy things.

We have known sorrow and heartache and the very definition of what it means to overcome hardship.

But if we hadn't walked through those things I don't know that Macey would be who she is today.

And I love who she is. And who God has called her to be.


My second dream after motherhood was to be a professional dancer. Years of training and lessons gave me the chance to do just that. I wanted to move to NYC and dance my way into destiny and never stop.

It was my passion.

But God had a different plan.

And I am so thankful for that now.

I wouldn't trade it for all the pointe shoes and theater performances in the entire world.

After ten years of single motherhood, I met and married my precious husband.

He asked Macey's permission to marry me. (She said "Yes!")

He proposed to me and then to Macey on bended knee.

He gave an engagement ring to me and then a diamond cross to Macey.

"I want to be a Father to you baby and we are going to be a family." He meant it. Every word of it.

Melt me.

He said vows to me and then to Macey on our wedding day.

Melt me.

He danced with me at our reception and then with Macey.

Melt me.

Talk about a recompense.........


My husband had a big dream too.

I remember many conversations about his dream to play in the NFL.

He was blessed with a full scholarship to play for a major university in college. (the one where the bank has to close early on game day and all the bank ladies wear dangly earrings in team colors. None other than the SEC!)

His dream was to eventually play in the NFL and he had all the talent and ability to do just that.

And then it happened.

A major knee injury during a practice changed everything.

His dream of playing in the NFL was over.

I remember the day we were sitting together talking about how the injury changed everything and I asked one simple question.


"Honey, what was the month and year that all of this happened?"


"April of 1989."


I just stood there in complete shock and awe and disbelief.


I remember him standing there staring at me.


"Do you know the month and the year that I became pregnant with Macey?"


"April of 1989."


God had a different plan. A better plan. A family plan.


We could not believe how God orchestrated things on our behalf years before we would even realize what had happened. That two very young people with two very big and very different dreams would be turned toward a new plan, His plan, during the exact month of the exact year in the exact same state.

I doubt we ever would have met one another if he had been drafted into the NFL because this girl has never set foot inside an NFL game.  I'm also fairly convinced that my husband would never have set foot inside a major theater in the middle of Manhattan~ especially not the ballet.

So maybe, just maybe and this is just a thought......

Right now whatever you are going through, walking through, pushing through is part of a greater plan. A plan with a purpose so grand you couldn't have orchestrated it if you tried. A purpose so full of destiny that no eye has seen and no ear has heard of such wonder and goodness.

There is a man who will love you and love your children as if they were his own. You can raise children as a single mother with very little money, without the love and support of family and friends, without status, things, position, titles and degrees and they will turn out to be wonderful human beings.

I want to encourage you today to scoop those babies up in your arms, eat peanut butter and jelly to keep the lights on if you have to and sing His praises for what He is about to do in your life.

It's just a better plan.

His plan.

The best is yet to come sweet friends.....

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9