Drea Wood

Half the House

Written on 05/09/2013 by Dreawood in house keeping

Well, I finally got around to taking a few pictures of our house.
Its been a busy month and the house is far from finished… but we’ve made good head way… so here is a 1st glimpse for you all to see.

Also be sure to read our Journey to our Home HERE.

I’ll start in the basement.

That is our boys “toy room” but it also will second as a guestroom.
The toy room also is connected to a full bath and deck. Which will be nice for guest.

The sofa in the toy room is a sleeper sofa, so when guest come we will just pull that out.

I love being able to have a space to shove all the boys toys… it has really helped with night time clean up and not having to deal with “toys throughout” the home… one place for all that is so much better!

The room had built in shelves in a closet as well as on one wall, which was perfect!

This is the back deck that leads out from the toy room….

It has a ramp that leads down to stairs, that then takes you to the backyard.

Our backyard is almost an acre, maybe less? we aren’t 100% sure hah…

Behind the tree’s is a wonderful creek that our boys adore!

Ok, back inside, the toy room leads to this room…

Our packed full office/photo editing/sewing room.

Can you tell my husband loves books? We built that shelf out of plain pieces of wood and cement blocks.

When you go upstairs from the basement you will enter our living room space.

The painting on the mantel is from the very talented Melissa Payne Baker.
I just got it and I am in love with it. She is a friend/client of mine and painted it just for me.

It represents our old COR home’s view. Which we so miss!

The living room opens up into our very spacious and much loved kitchen.

The kitchen has a walk in pantry, which is awesome!

and as you can see, lots of great window light…

The dining room where we eat as a family is connected with a hall way, close by the kitchen.

Across the hall from the dining room is our school room.

It is still being organized… we have some book shelves in the works for it.

Also there is a HUGE hammond organ left from the previous owners.
We plan to sell it :) – since its big and a bit in the way.

The chalk board was also left by the previous owners ;-) its the real deal too!

Here is a glimpse back towards the dining room.

and…. for now, thats all I got :) – I will take some photos upstairs once that is “cleaner” LOL – its still a wreck!

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Pow

Written on 05/07/2013 by Dreawood in Reed

Guess who’s 7 month mile stone just passed?

Can’t believe I missed it! It just kinda hit me late tonight….

Yea, kinda like that ;-) – ok kinda cheesy….

I hope to blog more later on this sweet lil’ dude.
[yes my kids wear jammies out to play with, thats how we do it here! lol]

Who yes, is still bald as can be… and I love it!

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Gathering thoughts – What is next?

Written on 05/06/2013 by Dreawood in family, ministry, random, struggles

It seems like its been ages since I actually posted a blog post with some real thought put into it. :)
The move and the birth of our 4th, among other things…. seem to have pushed the ability to blog away. Which is fine. There are seasons where this happens….

Our life right now is so busy and full of adjustments still.

Travis’ job is hard.

Between dealing with high risk situations, drugs, suicides, death and very late nights… not to mention the incredible amt of material he is having to learn and memorize with this new job… his ability to pour into us right now is difficult… which I am understanding about… but its never easy either. Hoping that all levels out soon. He realizes it, so that is always good. Its just learning to find new balance that takes time.

Between that, we are still unpacking boxes… finishing up the cleaning of our former home…

and at the same time organizing my business… which is so busy right now (Thankful but overwhelmed)….

Home schooling is on HOLD for a few weeks… as we figure things out and we have hopes of starting our new year in schooling this year earlier, July probably… so that we can take off some time this fall for a vacation…. maybe.

The transition into our new home has gone smoothly, I think… but we also greatly miss our former neighbors and as of now our new neighbors aren’t exactly “lovely….” – Lets just say, we will not be close and I am thankful their house is listed for sale. Enough said? :) Kay. You want to “love” those type of people and pray for their soul… but at the same time, it sure is hard… and a big part of you just wants them gone. Lets pray for their soul and a quick sale? ;-)

Travis and I will be graduating from the program we are in at our church.

I had debated if I should put it out there, what this program actually is… and after much thought I am totally convinced HIDING it any longer is pointless. I believe in being an open book and what we go through will ultimately in the end hopefully bless others and be a tool in ministry.

As many of you know, who have followed this blog for the last few years… you know that my husband resigned as Senior Pastor at our former church, West End Baptist in NE NC. You can read his resignation HERE.

He was asked to leave the church… for no real “biblical” reason… To elaborate he had deacons telling him they wish he didnt wear jeans… they wish he didn’t preach messages that “offended” people…. and that any problem ultimately was “HIS FAULT” even things that were not even related to what he did. Yea, it was pretty sad.

We found out later the church had a history of firing their pastors every few years… and while we do not know all the background information regarding all the situations before us… we do know that the reasoning for them wanting Travis’ gone, was not right… and I believe firmly they are reaping what they sow because of it. Which breaks our heart at the same time because we truly love and miss many of the people there…..

That being said. What seemed like such a BAD thing at the time… being kicked to the curb and left to find a way out… was in the end a great blessing.

We got into a program called City of Refuge at First Baptist Church Woodstock…. close to Atlanta, GA.

Lets just say… 100′s of Pastors apply every year… and for 2011 we were one of the last families chosen for that year… and I believe at the time they only had 9 families in the program. So to get in is huge…. at least for us it was.

They basically provided us a home… a refuge… a safe place… counsel…. community…. and the ability to be real… genuine and vulnerable for the 1st time EVER…. and as a Pastor and Pastors wife this was huge.

Here is a snippet off the church website that sums up what City of Refuge is:

Pastor Johnny observed, ” Christians are sometimes the worst about shooting their own wounded and then leaving them in the field to bleed to death.” He wanted the Body at First Woodstock to be different. He envisioned a ministry that would enable hurting ministers and their families to find hope and healing and so the City of Refuge Ministry was born.

To often in ministry the Pastor and his family are held to such high esteem, that you cant be real… at least that is how many churches make it… you have to uphold this “image” of perfection and strength… that being genuine to the people can be difficult. As a Pastors wife I felt very alone…. even though every sunday I was surrounded by people… I did not feel at home and I did not feel I was able to be myself…. even though I was in ways…. but in many ways I was not.

I hated the way we had to dress…. and how ritualistic our worship felt…. I felt trapped at times in our church… and what people found important drove me nuts….

Any how… we are all imperfect people with our own “stuff” – but one thing I wish those in the church would realize… especially these older baptist churches… is that their Pastor and his wife…. and their kids… are “normal” and “wounded” people too….

City of Refuge has changed our lives.

We are so thankful for it.

Our time in the program is drawing to an end soon…

I am going to miss it!!

… but at the same time I am so thankful for the journey through it… and thankful we are able to stay here for hopefully a very long time ;-) – but then again, you never know!

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Now, my view :)

Written on 05/04/2013 by Dreawood in babywearing, friends, photography

The other day I posted behind the scene photos from our BOBA shoot. Now here are “just a few” of the 4,000 images taken that weekend haha… to showcase these awesome carriers. Be on the look out for many more of these images showing up on the Boba website as well as the Boba facebook page.

Note: I am only featuring a ‘few‘ of our models. Boba will release the rest in time. All of our models were AMAZING and did such a great job! I can’t wait for all their beautiful faces to be slathered all over the web ;-) – on boxes and out there internationally. Its going to be so awesome, especially since many of these women are friends of mine and have become friends since…. So in short ;-) – this is just a teaser.

Melissa Payne Baker is a client of mine but also a dear friend. Shes also Atlanta’s Top Artist! She’s amazing.

Some of you may recognize the model above, she was in last year’s photos too!

Here is a flash back ;-)

& yes, its the same baby, only much bigger now.

This next model is actually a former MODE model! She made the cover of Mode magazine years ago.

She also had an australian accent. We could have listen to her speak all day!

Heather Lindey’s lil one made me want more babes. His baby newborn chub was to much cuteness for me.

Jessica’s husband Seth Condrey even modeled for us. He is a very talented musician and also a great dad and sport, for allowing us to use him two years in a row now as well. The other cute mama to the right is a friend of mine Amelia, whos baby girl Olivia was born on Reed’s due date :) – we are in the same Sunday School together.

& here is one Coleen Verner got of Reed and I together. Love that he got to model too!

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Behind the Scene’s with Boba

Written on 05/03/2013 by Dreawood in babywearing

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of photographing Boba’s line again! I did this last year and loved it… but this year was even better. We had amazing models but also Boba shipped me ;-) – one of their amazing managers Bethany, and her along with a few others and the owner of Boba, we got things organized and early April we kicked things off.

3 days of shooting.

Lots of baby love.

Lots of beautiful moms and dads!

Amazing weather (except for day 1- we dodged rain, but it still worked).

… and my awesome parents even came down to help baby sit my boys, since I was gone so long. It was a huge help.

Thank you to Coleen, a sweet friend of mine who helped take photographs of Reed and I together but also took every one of these behind the scene photos.

One of our models was Heather Lindsey, she is a beautiful new mom, who also is an Author and Pastors wife.
You can check out her facebook HERE.

& yes… I even baby wore Reed while photographing on day 3 ;-)

More photos to come later….
If you want a great baby carrier seriously look into Boba. I love love love their carriers. I use them every single day I go out and cannot imagine a shopping trip or church without them ;-) – use andreawood10 for 10% off at www.bobafamily.com

Note: This IS NOT A SPONSORED POST.

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