Erin Akin Carroll

When I went to Atlanta for the blogger brunch with Courtney DeFeo, I had the opportunity to meet some incredible women. And one of those women was Tara Lowry. While we were talking, I quickly learned that she and her husband Andy are the talented, super nice owners of Between You and Me Signs.

I am sure you have seen their signs in blog posts and on Pinterest. They’re the most beautiful, most natural, pieces of art I’ve seen. And each piece tells a story. And they’re handmade, y’all.

With Christmas coming up, Tara wanted to get a jump start on showing all of you the different pieces in the shop for Christmas. And it’s going to be hard for you to decide which is your favorite because they’re all beautiful.

My personal favorite is this Joy piece. It’s tall and slim. And I love that you can make it look more rustic and set it on your front porch to welcome the neighbors and Christmas visitors. But you can also put it inside and add a bright pop of Christmas red to your home.

Okay, so the best part, is that Between You and Me Signs is offering 10% off at their shop to all Blue-Eyed Bride readers with the code BEBRIDE.

Make sure you visit the Etsy shop to see all the other fabulous Christmas pieces!

Don’t forget. 10% off with BEBRIDE.

Tara teamed up with all of these amazing bloggers. Seriously, I’m just tickled to be in their company. And they’re all featuring a different Christmas sign from Between You And Me Signs over the next few days. Make sure you visit all of their blogs!

I’m starting a fun, new little blog series called With Purpose & Passion. I read an inspiring, encouraging, and grace-filled book this summer called Your Beautiful Purpose by Susie Larsen. That book showed me that there are times in life when I will be running wild with purpose and passion, and other times will feel a bit more stale. But as long as my true purpose rests in God alone, I will bounce between those other places of passion and purpose with ease and confidence.

So in the spirit of celebrating the purpose and passion of others, I wanted to periodically feature some of my favorite people who inspire me.

A couple of years ago, I met the beautiful Betsy Storey. She is such a sweet friend, and now she is a mama-to-be.

Betsy recently launched her calligraphy business, Heavens to Betsy Calligraphy. She is creating the most beautiful, personalized address stamps with her custom calligraphy.

I knew that I just had to have one for the new house. We hope to be moved in for Christmas, and I just can’t wait to stamp this gorgeous stamp on the back of all of our Christmas cards this year!

*Heavens to Betsy created a mock up address stamp for promotional purposes for us. This is not our actual address. 

I also really wanted to order some little stamps with just the boys’ names on them. I thought they would be good to stamp onto gift tags and calling cards and cards sent to grandparents for holidays. I absolutely love the way they turned out, and I know we will get a lot of use out of these.

My heart still flutters a little extra when I see my boys’ names like this. I can’t believe they are ours!

I asked Betsy to share with you a little bit about why she loves calligraphy and she found passion in calligraphy.

So that’s my friend Betsy and her beautiful calligraphy stamp business. If you are in the market for an address stamp, I highly recommend contacting her. She’s a joy to work with!

Today is going to be a really wild day. I woke up this morning praying for the kids’ attitudes… and mine.

Hayes has his speech therapy session this morning, followed by his occupational therapy session. It’s not part of our normal therapy routine to have two sessions in one day, but this week is unusual. So we had to switch things up and schedule two big appointments for the same day. And in all the scheduling of these appointments, I started to get discouraged.

I was discouraged that we had to rush around so much in one morning. I was discouraged that Hudson had to come along to both sessions where I beg him to be patient and quiet while we work with Hayes. Hayes gets pushed to his limit, and starts to shut down at the end of back to back sessions, and I was absolutely dreading that.

And then I turned it around on myself.

He’s my second born child. He didn’t get enough one-on-one attention from me in his first few months and that’s why he needs speech therapy and occupational therapy.

And, oh, remember that he had to wear that doc band. And he doesn’t know his numbers and letters, and doesn’t know all of his colors and shapes. Those things are all my fault.

I can tell myself lie after lie. I can become completely blind to the fact that Hayes is doing great. That he’s a wonderful kid. He’s even perfect in my eyes. He’s smart and bright and doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He’s still in speech and OT despite meeting his goals because his therapists like working with him, and we don’t have to “graduate” until he’s 3 years old. And we are blessed with two of the best therapists we could ever hope for!

But those thoughts still come in where I completely give up on giving myself any grace, and I just beat myself up.

And, yet, when I talk to a friend about the same topic of how things are so different with her second born, I do everything I can to build her up. Cover her in grace. Make sure she knows that she has not failed this baby. Because I know that she is a great mom. This baby is loved and adored and prayed for, and will have a beautiful childhood.

If I can give that grace to her, can I save a little for myself, too?

The Father is doing that for me. He’s covering me in grace every single day. I don’t have it all together. I get fed up with myself and my imperfections and my inability to get it done. And, yet, He’s got me covered. I need Jesus desperately.

Because some days I am doing great! And other days, I know that I need Him to carry me through from one hour to the next. And what a joy it is to ask Him to do that. I can delight in that!

I may not be a perfect mother, but I love my babies immeasurably. I may not have it all together, but I certainly don’t have the energy to waste on pretending to have it all together. And some days I may beat myself up over these things, but my God loves me and has me covered.

2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.