New Beginnings

God really does work in mysterious ways! ...

We've learned more and more about that in many different areas of our lives in the past 5 weeks. As most of you know, we were happily coaching & teaching in Wall, Tx. If you don't know much about that place, or have never heard of it, it's amazing!!! We were both given the opportunity to work, learn, and grow there right after graduating from college and I couldn't imagine a better place to start our careers. We've made many great, life-long friends in our time there, as well as growing to love our students & athletes that we were blessed to coach and teach. The community welcomed us into their 'family' from the moment we came in, and we could never express how much we love them and how much they mean to us.

But, as much as we did love Wall, and always will, we were given job opportunities back around our hometowns in Mason, Tx. We weren't expecting to go anywhere, and definitely weren't looking to leave, but we feel that God has opened a door for us. We had a chance to move back home to our families, and that is what really means the most to us right now with losing our sweet baby Maddex. As much as we've have been supported by everyone, it's always encouraging & strengthening to be around your family. So, we've have made that incredibly hard decision, but we are looking forward to being in Mason with Michael coaching and me taking a 'coaching break' and just teaching. We'll be so much closer and will have the chance to watch our little cousins play sports, be close to family, ride horses, and take pictures (for me). So instead of finding us in the middle of the cotton fields, you can now look for us in the Texas hill country!

We pray that God will bless our decision and our 'new beginning'.

1 Month!

1 month ago today, we were blessed to give birth to our perfect little angel Maddex. WOW, how our lives have & continue to change since then. It seems strange to think of it as his 'birthday' because those are usually celebrations of life, and Maddex didn't have that here on Earth, but it is the 'birth' of his welcoming into Heaven, and of Michael and I becoming parents. It's a sad day, but also an amazing day, because we are parents to a perfect son, a perfect child, a perfect gift from God and we know that will help us to be even stronger, more appreciative parents when we have more children here on Earth.
Baby Maddex, we love you and miss you more than you can imagine, but you are always & forever in our hearts! Thank you for teaching us so much about faith, hope, & love in such a short amount of time!

Our Journey

The past few weeks for the McLeods, and their families, have been quite a roller-coaster. As we were awaiting the arrival of our first child, Maddex, we found ourselves in the most difficult situation of our lives thus far. We went in for our 6 & 1/2 month check-up and couldn't find Maddex's heartbeat. A sonogram informed us that he was no longer with us, and our lives seemed to unravel. So many months of planning, preparation, excitement, and now it was all changed. We did what we had to do, which was give birth to our sweet baby boy knowing that we couldn't take him home, because he was already at Home in Heaven. We never got to hear his cries, see his eyes open, or watch him take a breath, but we did experience the greatest blessing and miracle of life that we've ever seen from God in our little boy.

We have learned that burrying a child is one of the hardest things to do, but for us, we have the certainty that our sweet baby is in Heaven, and that's a comfort knowing that he's in the arms of Jesus. I recently read on a blog of a family that went through a similar situation, "how amazing is it that when your son opened his eyes for the first time, the face he got to see was Jesus!?!" ... WOW, I thought, that is incredible and better than anything we could've ever given him here on Earth. With that said, it is still so hard to not think about him not being here, or still growing in my belly, and hard not to think of what might have been. All we can rest on and trust in, is that God has an amazing plan for our family, and Maddex was a huge part of that plan, and always will be. Our trust, hope, faith, and strength is in Him and he will see us through.

Support, encouragement, & comfort! - We've had no lack of those at any point! We, without a doubt, have the most amazing families, friends, and communities that a family could ask for. So much support and encouragement has been given to us through visits, cards, gifts, food, donations, love, and prayers that we could never express the blessings and gratitude that have been poured out for us. We thank you all so much for that, we pray God will bless you in return, and we love you!

Blessings! - Our first blessing was receiving baby Maddex, definitely one of the biggest of our lives, but we've also received another huge one because of him. ... After years and months of thinking about it, Michael made the best decision of his life by giving himself to God in baptism, on Father's Day, just 2 days after we said goodbye to our precious son. He says it's all because of Maddex, and that is the lesson that he taught his Daddy. His faith is amazing, and has helped carry me in many instances over the past few weeks. We are growing together in faith, hope, and love, and that is truly a blessing from God!