BIG Plans for the Little Belle- An Introduction

I've known for awhile that when we moved to New York City in a few years I wanted to have a blog specifically for that year and our adventures in the Big Apple. But lately, I decided it would be fun to go ahead and start it, so that we could have a diary of the whole process from the very earliest planning stages. Let me back up a little bit first.

Peyton has always wanted to live in New York City, or at least he has since I've known him. So, before we got married our plan was to move to NYC before we had children, live there a year or two, and then move back to Mississippi to start our family. Like I said, that was OUR plan. It was not, clearly, God's plan. In his infinite knowledge and grace, the Lord saw fit to make us parents a lot sooner than we expected (about ten months from the day we got married).

We are expecting another baby that will be here next April and we feel so blessed to have this precious family and this wonderful life.

Obviously, all of this has changed things about New York. Several people, including some people really close to us, have either said that they didn't think we would do it or that they didn't think we should do it now that we have a child. That stung. But when people ask me why I am still on board for all this (something I don't really blame them for asking), I tell them one thing:

I am living my ultimate dream right now by staying home with our daughter, in no small part because of Peyton's hard work, patience, and sacrifice. It would not be fair to deny him a similar dream because I don't want to do the hard work of moving across the country, have the patience to live in a tiny apartment with two small children, or make the sacrifice that is living away from many of the people I love for the first time in my life.

I addition, Peyton and I both think that this will be an amazing learning experience for our children and one of the greatest gifts we could give them in their early childhood. Which brings me to an important part of this introduction; THE MAIN CHARACTER:

{Ann Peyton, aka the Little Belle}

So, now you know the "what" and the "why" of our New York City dream. The "how" is primarily what I will be exploring from now on.

***Little sidenote, as we are expecting another baby in the Spring, I know I'll have to do a little tweaking to the title of this blog. But I had already created the header before we even found out I was pregnant, and right now, not knowing the gender, I really can't change it anyway.