Happy New Year

We want to wish you all a very happy New Year filled with blessings.  When I think back through this year and the blessings that the Lord has brought into our lives, I am humbled and amazed that Almighty God would care about us and the "little" needs that we have.  He not only cares about our needs, but also about our desires and wants, and He wants to fill even those.  Seven years ago, we celebrated a very lonely Christmas and a sad start into a new year.  We didn't know if we would ever have the privilege to be parents, to celebrate Christmas with our children by our side.  But I had reached a point where I was ready to submit to whatever the Lord had in store for us.  I was tired of trying to get pregnant.  I was tired of always wanting something that I couldn't have, and I was ready to be happy with whatever the Lord would do in our lives. 

To be honest, when something we have been praying so hard for or working so hard to achieve finally comes to pass, it's often very different than we envisioned it.  Having children was no exception.  Within four years we had four little girls, and boy did our lives change!  Yes, we received more blessings than we can count, and we continue to be blessed by God's goodness to us, but life did not suddenly become easy.  Our sorrows did not suddenly disappear when we finally held our first beautiful daughter in our arms. 

I believe that we get too wrapped up in our own desires and in the "thing" that we are pursuing that we forget to count all of the big and small blessings God wants us to see along the way.  Grant it, I am generally an optimist.  It is easier for me to see the postive in something than it is for most people.  As we end this year and begin a new year, I love to reflect on the blessings God has brought into our lives, and I resolve along with many other things to see the blessings that God has in store for me and our family in the new year.  I want to be that one leperd that comes back to tell Jesus "thank you" for healing him before forgetting just how good the Lord has been to me. 

We are excited to share with you in the blessings that God will bring into our lives in this new year!