This year – it’s been a wildly fast one and yet the last five weeks have somehow seemed longer than the 47 before them.  As this year comes to a close, it only seems fitting to reflect on all that God has done in our lives in 2012.

We celebrated birthdays and anniversaries.  We traveled to Haiti, twice for each of us, and the oldest child made her first trip as well.  We wrapped up a really, really hard school year, soaked up the summer, and kicked off a new year which has been so much better thus far.  I painted more furniture than I can count and discovered this relatively cheap form of therapy and realized that I need a creative outlet far more than I knew.  We made more trips to the doctor’s office this year than all our other years of parenting combined, or at least it seemed that way.  We had two broken arms, a split open ear, pertussis, and a myriad of other minor illnesses.

We learned that the adoption process is wildly unpredictable and that a pregnancy with no due date is unfathomably hard to endure.  I started the year with a focus on attentiveness and found the word hope written all over it.  We took some little trips and focused on time as a family, preparing our hearts and our home for our Haiti girl to join us.  I experienced the hardest holiday season I have ever known and God gave me a glimpse of the desperate love He has for us and how He longs for us all to come home.

Oh, this year, it’s been a good one.  We have grown and changed and hopefully become more like our Jesus.  I am eager to open the door on 2013.  I’m cautiously hopeful we will be a family of seven by year’s end.  I’m trusting Him to continue to complete what He has started in each of us.  And I’m looking forward to where He leads us in the coming year.

Wishing you a blessed beginning of the coming year.  May 2013 be the best one yet.

For His Glory ~