Will you?

Having a baby has changed many things in our life...and I can honestly say for the better. One lady in the store the other day was looking at Briggs and said..."They will change your life"...but her tone was more of a negative twist to that statement. My response..."Yep and it's so much better now" I wonder how she liked that response :)

One major change is, how you think about things, spend money, prepare for the present and the future. I'm making this post to encourage all of our friends, family and any occasional readers of our blog to get your personal matters in order. Since we have had Briggs, one of the top items on our list has been to tackle a living will and testament.

This is obviously not something any of us like to think about...now that we have Briggs it makes me super sad to even think about not being here with him to love him through his precious little life and to be there through all his little moments of growing up. Lord willing, Justin and I will have a long happy life with Briggs and other children to come. But...we both feel very strongly that it's our responsibility as a parent to provide for him if something did happen to us. So, this past week we have been working on our living will and testament. It makes things legal on what would happen with our assets and Briggs (and eventually any future children) if something happened to us simultaneously. We know there are many people in Briggs life who love him and would take care of him, but in the event that something tragic did happen like that, we don't want any question on what our wishes would be. And so there can be a smoother transition for our children without being passed around. I did some research and looked things up on the internet.

What I found looked kind of sketchy. So I asked our Bible study leader, who is also an attorney for some direction. His recommendation was to get an attorney to draw up the papers to make sure they are legit. He put us in touch with Melton & Duncan, L.L.C. who have been a great help. Lori, the attorney we are working with has been great. She emailed us the documents, Justin and I have been working on them (not that they are complicated, it's just a lot to think and pray through), we email them back to her, she drafts the final copy and sends it to us for proofing, then we go in one time to sign the papers.

Now I know that no one likes thinking about all this. I'm not gonna lie...it was some heavy stuff to discuss, who would have our child if something happened to us, how would Briggs and our other children receive money from the trust that's left to him, living will (what happens if you're terminally ill or injured and unable to speak for yourself...). Anyway, we are finally finished. And good news...once it's done, it's done and we don't have to worry about it anymore. So, we encourage all of our friends and family to consider making this step to get things in order for your children.