Molly Kate Daniel

Molly Kate Daniel was born yesterday, and she has me thinking about all sorts of things.

Before there was Jarrod and Nicki, there was Sarah and Nicki - college roommates and partners in crime!  



Taking a break from rock climbing near Graham, TX

At the end of our time living together, we had a third roommate, Jill. (Jill actually went to high school with Jarrod and his sister; small world!)  Sarah and Jill immediately bonded over their love of Disney movies, and I remember thinking, "Oh, great!", but we managed to have some crazy, fun times.  We were loud and silly, and we loved to eat sweets! We also shared an obsession with the television show Friends, and even now we can quote episodes to one another. If words fail us during a life event, we'll just quote Friends!


Pioneer Drive Baptist Church

Decorating Easter eggs while watching Friends!

I thought, that like the TV show, we would all live next door to each other and be in each other's homes constantly. I thought we would raise our kids to call the others "auntie", we would share stories about our man-child husbands and we would all vacation together.

Over 7 years have passed since we lived together. We haven't danced in our p.j.'s to a Reba song or watched Disney movies at all hours of the day or eaten more baked goods than an elementary school bake-sale in almost a decade. We all live hours away from where we went to college and hours away from each other.

Molly Kate has me thinking about how life just happens to us. Just as I thought my friends and I would be like the TV show, I also thought 7 years would have put me in a different place than where I am now. I thought I would have more than one child by now. I thought we would, surely, have gotten to experience owning a home by now. I thought I would have a cookie-cutter, American Dream life by now.

The truth is that I made a commitment as a young girl to follow the Lord, and as an adult, I made a commitment to follow my husband. I can honestly say both the Lord and my husband are causing me to make good on those commitments! It's ok though, because just as Jarrod continues to take care of us, so does the Lord.  He gives us new churches and new friends and new jobs and grace to accept each new place.

So, I may not live next door to my college roommates, but I still love and admire them. I look forward to our few and far between visits and phone calls spent catching up.  When Collin does something so innately ME, I think of how only they could truly appreciate it.  I stalk them on Facebook, and want all the best things for them in life. And with Molly Kate's arrival, I declare that I will still be called "Auntie Nicki".

Molly Kate Daniel
August 6, 2012
7lbs 15.9oz; 21 inches
And I'm told "reddish brown" hair :)