Happy 4th Birthday, Benaiah!

Dear Benaiah,

What a ray of sunshine you are! All day long on your birthday you were saying to yourself and anyone else who would listen, “Happy Birthday to Benaiah.” You couldn’t get enough of the FaceTime calls from family and friends wishing you a happy birthday. You took that phone all through the house showing them who knows what.

Auntie Ononika (your birth mom) said, “ Happy Birthday King ❤️ I love you soo much & miss you everyday baby.” And as I try to do often, I thanked her for giving our family one of the most precious gifts. She is a special lady for her great sacrifice.

Benaiah, you love your family so well, and while you’re the smallest your voice is most typically the loudest. You refuse to be left behind or forgotten. You will make your opinion known! Frazier is your best bud and your best playmate. I’m so thankful that at age 10 he will still race matchbox cars, play pretend and build Duplos.

We have learned that when you are upset the best thing to do is to give you a hug. You’ll even say to us, “I need a hug” when you’re sad or mad. You are such an affectionate little guy, and we love that.

Your favorites continue to be tractors, excavators and all things that move. You love going to preschool! Mrs. Ball and Mrs. Mercer have been fantastic teachers for your first year. Your favorite foods are any fruit, Cheetos, granola and cheese. For your birthday dinner you requested spaghetti and chocolate cupcakes. Stella is your most favorite friend outside of our family. You get along beautifully, and the parents affectionately refer to you two as Ebony and Ivory.

We love being your parents. We love the story God is writing through your life. We love the smiles you bring to so many faces. It reminds us all that there is still much good in the world.

We love you,

Momma and Daddy

New Year New Home

I never thought we’d say farewell to the home we brought all our babies home to, the home Geoff and our family worked so hard to build and the home that has been a home, a retreat and a place of celebration for so many. When an amazing opportunity came our way to purchase property in Mechanicsville where most of our community resides, we had a big decision to make. So many tears were cried and prayers prayed, but we had peace and knew it was time. So, the short of it is one of the Soul Farms employees is having his dream come true as he moves into the King William house and takes over the farm. We have moved into a brick rancher on the 57 acres we’ve purchased in Mechanicsville. In time, we will build our home and our farm here on the new property. For now, we are exploring the new land and trails, enjoying life together in a 1 story home and thoroughly enjoying being so close to life, friends and some family. I pulled together some pictures to capture a snapshot of the incredible memories and life lived on the original Soul Farms.

Double Digits for Frazier

Dear Frazier,

You are growing into such a strong, thoughtful and funny young man. You are 100% boy with your love of all things hunting and fishing, and it’s rare to find you without some sort of knife on your hip “just in case” there’s a need. You love Legos more than any other non-living thing, and as soon as you get a new set, you are parked at the table putting it together until it’s complete. So, it was only fitting when we gathered the family to celebrate your 10th birthday that we had a Lego building contest, which of course, you won.

Your engineering skills match up well with your love of math in school. And not surprisingly, getting you to read is not an easy task. Though you have thoroughly been enjoying Hardy Boys lately, and I love that you’re reading the classics. Your teacher’s most recent comments include “great manners, very respectful, full of potential but not always working to his potential, friends with everyone, a real jokester and needs to work on his timing of jokes.” We’re all a work in progress, buddy.

Other things you really love are your siblings. You want so badly to hang out with your sisters, but you are learning how to do that in a way that is received well (hint: pestering is not the way.) You are the most marvelous big brother to Benaiah. You are so patient with him and his 3 year old self. You play with him, read to him (especially if it gets you out of reading your chapter book for 30 minutes), and you’re constantly teaching him and inviting him along. I am so thankful for your compassionate heart toward him. One of my favorite moments of the day is watching you get him ready for school when we’re in the carpool line. You unbuckle him, put his mask, jacket and book bag on and you help him get out of the car. Then you sweetly take his hand and walk him to his class holding hands the entire way. 

You are growing into a young man, and I have watched you pull away from me a bit and cling more closely to Daddy. This hasn’t been an easy transition for me, and I will keep kissing and hugging you because I just can’t help it! However, your protectiveness of me has not waned, and you have learned from your daddy how to treat a lady like a gentleman should. I’m grateful for this.

We love you so much, buddy. You are truly becoming a man after God’s heart as you seek to protect the vulnerable, love everyone and live a full and adventurous life that is worth living. Let’s go after all that God has for you and see what He will do in and through you in this year ahead.

I love you forever and for always,

Momma

Cousin time at your family birthday lunch.

LEGO building contest!

You and Max were the winning team.

You requested an Oreo cake like you had last year. It doesn’t quite look like the Pinterest picture, but it sure tasted good!

Ten years old - wow!

All of your grandparents came to celebrate you! We just didn’t get Mimi in the picture before she had to leave. We are blessed to have such supportive parents.

Thank you Uncle Brian, Aunt Keesha, Eddie and Max for making the trek down 95 to celebrate this guy.

On your actual birthday, you requested a sleepover with Jack and Christian. So, their families came and enjoyed hamburgers for dinner, ice cream cake and a rousing game of charades. 

Christian, Frazier, Jack and Benaiah.

Breakfast time after a night with little sleep. 

We ended the sleepover with a trip to the trampoline park and the Dollar Tree for snacks and drinks. Who knew the Dollar Tree would be such a hit?!

You were given such a neat LEGO set from the new architecture series. Here’s Tokyo! We visited some of these sights just a few years back.

Happy birthday, Frazier!

Christmas Joy in 2021

In the Lawrence home, the Christmas season is filled with joy, Jesus and a mix of chaos and lessons in gratitude. Sounds about right when you have a family with young ones! Keeping the focus on Christ and others requires real intentionality in a consumer-focused culture. And let's face it, it's so fun to buy gifts for children! Reading our Advent story together with candles in the evening helped us all come back to the true reason for the season - the gift of Jesus coming to earth. We pray the presence of God was felt and acknowledged this Christmas - He is so worthy of our love and devotion. 

And, knowing this was our final Christmas on our King William farm, we ended with a bang hosting many friends from around the country and family members from around the state. We are so thankful our home has the space to allow people to stay comfortably and explore the great outdoors. Here are some of the highlights from the season in pictures. 

Leila and I had a super fun time shopping for a dress for the December Holly Ball. This one was the winner!

We enjoyed selecting and cutting down our own Christmas tree this year. 

December = hot cocoa season. 

Our church hosted Christmas At The Movies for 3 weeks in December, which is when our pastoral team takes movies (similar to a modern-day parable) to communicate a message about Jesus. 

It was Benaiah's turn to put on the star this year. He's getting so big!

Here's our stunning 8th grader accompanied by her Daddy for the ACDS Holly Ball. 

They joined Addison and Matt for a daddy/daughter dinner before the Holly Ball. 

Mary-Michael participated in her dance studio's Christmas production ("Oh Night Divine"). She worked so hard for 6 weeks to learn 4 dances. 

Ladies lunch with new and old friends in town from France and California. 

Our girls dinner crew got together for our annual family Christmas dinner, which included an intense and fun game of opening presents with potholders on. 

When Chip and KJ came to stay with us they gave the kids gift cards to their new favorite restaurant - Taco Bell. Oh my stars. Sorry Chick-fil-a. 

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at church. We always love this time together with our church family celebrating the birth of Jesus. 

These two...like this...a rare moment I had to capture. 

Benaiah was very excited to receive a tricycle from Mimi and Poppy for Christmas. 

Much to my children's dismay, I stopped buying cereal for breakfast about 6 months ago in an effort to get them to eat more protein in the morning. So, guess what we had for Christmas morning breakfast!

Leila (16), Mary-Michael (11), Frazier (10) and Benaiah (3) on Christmas morning. 

Our Christmas morning tradition continued with delivering farm goodies and presents to wherever the Lord leads us on Christmas morning. We felt led to focus on homes with only 1 car knowing these may be homes where people were alone. We were blessed, as always, by being able to do this. We remarked as we drove around on the many families we've met over the years because of this tradition. 

We enjoyed Christmas with the Lawrences, and we were happy to have Uncle Mike in town from Texas (especially Benaiah). I just love this picture. 

How many grandsons can Grandpa wrestle at once!?


Chip and KJ are serving the Lord in amazing ways through Circuit Riders, and we are so happy to be a small part of their journey. We are always excited when they come in town and stay with us.