December is always a physically and mentally exhausting month... of course, mainly because of Christmas and all that surrounds the Holiday season.. but also because this month always makes me become very reflective... One reason is because it is my birthday month and turning another year older makes me think about my life and how I am living it... also, December is the last month of the year and I am, by nature, a planner, scheduler and organizer so I love making new years resolutions and I love planning out my year ahead... So December I love to reflect back on the year and see what it brought... and this year brought a lot...
2011 -
This year was a huge GROWING year for me. Last year at this time I had determined that 2011 would be a "year of prayer". That I would study prayer and most importantly, pray. And I think I did grow some in my prayer life (though I know I have a VERY long way to grow in this area and I could have done better) but I think the Lord had a little bit of a different plan for our lives this year... mainly growing in our love and devotion to Him. And what could be more important?So here are some recaps of this year...
Our Winter & Beginning of Spring -
- In January we delighted in finding out we were expecting our second child due in September.
- We enjoyed sled riding, building snow men and making snow angels
- In February my dad moved in with us to stay for a few months and Olivia enjoyed hanging out with him
- In March we miscarried our baby when I was 13 weeks along in my pregnancy. This was one of the most difficult things that I have ever dealt with in my life and yet it was also one also a huge blessing in my relationship with the Lord. You can read about the story of our second child here and how the Lord used that time in my life to show me His amazing love for me. We were blessed through testing to be able to find out that we had a little girl and were able to name her Gabrielle Vivian. (Gabrielle means "God is my strength" and Vivian means "life")
- The rest of Spring the Lord filled us with His peace as we grieved our loss, but He also started growing another longing in our heart.... for adoption
- In May God led us to Adopt from Ethiopia, we applied through America World Adoption and were excepted! We then started our homestudy and all of our paperwork for the adoption.
- I started blogging about our adoption
- Bryan turns 30! We have a surprise birthday bash for him
- Olivia turned 2! And had a "Minnie Mouse" birthday party
- Grandma Barb came in May to stay with us for the Summer
- Olivia starts sleeping in a big girl bed
- Our summer was filled with Garage Sales, Car washes, Garage Sales, Homestudy visits, paperwork, and..... more Garage sales...
- We were also able to fit in a couple camping trips this summer! I love camping!
- We also squeezed in a couple zoo trips too
- We had a VERY rainy/stormy summer (I've never seen so many storms in one year!)
- Our summer House/Project was digging out a ditch in our backyard and put in piping to solve our huge flooding problem
- And we ended our summer with yet another Garage Sale...
- September our Home-study is completed
- My dad moves out :(
- Grandma goes home to Florida :(
- October my cousin Laura gets married and Olivia and I are in the wedding! And Olivia dances through the whole reception...
- Olivia is a Monkey for Halloween and enjoyed getting "Pumpkin treats" (candy in her pink pumpkin that she took trick-or-treating)
- Olivia & I picked apples for the first time (First time for mommy too!)
- November we enjoyed a quiet & peaceful Thanksgiving at home with family
- December we celebrated my little sister Cierra's 6th birthday
- We also celebrated my, gulp, 27th birthday
- Most importantely we celbrated the birth of our Saviour and Lord, Jesus
This year went F-A-S-T... and as I reflect back on the year I see that it really was a good year.... there were both times of joy and times of heartache. The Lord has been so incredibly good to us. He has blessed us beyond what I could have ever imagined.
So that sums up 2011 - for the most part.
My next post will be looking ahead, to 2012, and all that I desire (Lord willing) to do in the coming year! As I already said, I love making new year's resolutions. I love planning the months ahead. But this coming year my focus will be a little different. Yes, I do have my set of "Goals" and my list of things I want "to-do" (it is good to plan), however, I really only have 1 resolution.... I'll tell you in my upcoming post.
I hope you were as blessed in 2011 as I was. I hope and pray that you can see the goodness of God in your life and that you can say along with me that He is continually shaping you and forming you more and more into His image. I can definitely see this in my life, I can see His work (although I also see all the MANY areas that I still need lots of work) i know that He is continually making me more like His Son Jesus. And for that I am so grateful! His Grace is sufficient, His Love is unending. He is awesome God!
~ Stephenie
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