You could not possibly believe how many changes and amazing blessings Taylor and I have gone through this year. You know how if you haven’t talked to someone in a long time you ask them “hey what’s new” and the typical response is something like “nothing really” well this year my response would be “pretty much everything.” The list of things that haven’t changed is probably much shorter the the list of things that has.
Let’s see here…
The list of things that have not changed
We’re still very happily married
We still have an amazing family support system
We still love and serve the almighty God
We still have Taylor’s trusty 1997 Toyota 4runner
That’s pretty much all I can think of.
At the beginning of the year we were living in California, part of an awesome Lifegroup and Church Plant, one of us was a student and one was a teacher, we were considered ‘a young married couple’ we lived in a tiny one bedroom guest house on an avocado grove.
Now we are living in Texas, part of a new awesome Lifegroup at a great church, Taylor is a paramedic and I’m a stay at home momma, we are now considered a young married couple with kids, and we own a 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom home.
Top five blessings of 2013
1. Obviously the biggest and most wonderful blessing of the year was the birth of our sweet baby girls on October 28th 2013.
It was such a blessing to make it to 38 weeks. And the girls were both born big and healthy. They didn’t even have to be taken to the NICU and we were able to leave the hospital after 3 days, which is all very rare for twins. Such a blessing. God’s hand was over our family and truly blessed us. They are only 9 weeks old but have already brought us the most insane amount of joy. I feel incredibly blessed that God chose Taylor and I to raise these sweet babies and I am determined to listen to His every word and to teach them to follow His plan for their life. I can’t wait to watch them grow and yet I want them to stay small forever.
2. Taylor’s new job. Many other blessings in our life stem from this major blessing. For example his work schedule. Since he’s a paramedic he works 24hr on and 48hr off. The fact that he gets so much time off is a blessing because we get to spend time together and the girls get a lot of time with their daddy. Another blessing that stems from his new job is the people he works with. From the day we moved here everyone has been so nice, they even offered to help us move in (since I was in my third trimester with twins and couldn’t really help much.)
3. My jobs. I have had 3 wonderful jobs this year. My favorite is being a stay at home mom. I feel very blessed that a get the gift of being able to stay home with my girls. It is a crazy, beautiful, chaotic, messy, poop filled joyful job that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Until June 2013 I was working at Calvary Christian School. I had many hats including, art teacher, PE teacher, cross country coach, soccer coach, cheer coach, girls bible study leader, softball coach and asst athletic director. It was such an amazing job for many reasons. I loved the people I worked with, I loved my students and I loved the ability to teach student about The Lord as well as about sports and art. I will forever be grateful that The Lord placed me there and for the friendships I made. And finally up until about a week before we moved I nannied for the most wonderful family. What a lovely blessing they have been in my life. I never knew I could love kids that I was not related to as much as I love those children. I truly feel that nannying was great practice for becoming a mom. Nothing can really prepare you completely but I think nannying is great training.
4. Our adventure of moving from California to Texas.
The move itself was a fun road trip. Taylor and I love traveling and love road trips. We have been very blessed in our 7 years together to have gone on some amazing trips. Since I was 28 weeks pregnant with twins when we moved we new this would be our last road trip for a while. Also my dr told me I shouldn’t spend more than 5-6 hours a day in the car. So we decided to take what would normally be a one or two day trip into a 5 day trip. We spent a night at a swanky hotel in Phoenix and spent the day at the pool, we went to Carlsbad Caverns, and we had a blast.
5. Living in Texas. This last one is a hard one because I dearly miss my friends, our cute little house, living near my little sister, being able to go to the beach any day of the year, driving by the place Taylor and I got married on a daily basis, our Lifegroup and our church and there are many other things I miss. However, living in Texas has been full of wonderful blessings. For example if we lived in California we would not be able to afford for me to stay home with the girls. The cost of living in California was way to high for us to live the life that we feel God is calling us to live. Living in Texas not only can we afford for me to stay home with the girls but we were also able to buy a home. A beautiful, modest, cozy, 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom home. We knew God was calling us to move and since we were obedient to listen to Gods calling he has truly blessed us beyond belief.
This year has been truly amazing and I am continually stunned by how God blesses us on a daily basis. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in 2014.
God bless you and Happy New Year!!!
The Joyful Dwelling 