2012- A Review of Our Year

This is the time of year where many people look back at what has happened over the year and then they look ahead to the coming year....

This blog post will be a review of 2012 and in a few days I will post a look at 2013, including some new goals I have...

Here are some highlights for our family in 2012!

1. If I had to sum up our year with only one word, it would be... Adoption!  It consumed our time and energy from the 1st of January until the 31st of December.  We made many trips to meet the boy who would become the newest member of our family, logged many hours and miles in our van to transport for our weekend visits, we experienced many meetings and lots of paperwork and rules.  But we wouldn't trade it for anything!  Not only did we experience the process of adoption, we were also able to see that process in the lives of at least 4 of our friends!  What a vivid example of what God did for us when He adopted us as His children through Jesus' death and resurrection!
2. A phrase that makes me think of 2012 is new friends!  Through a variety of circumstances, I've made some new friends and have enjoyed getting to know them.  It's nice to have people to support you and for you to rely on, to laugh and have fun with, and to support and encourage.
3. Another thing I learned this year, whether through my own experiences or through my friends, is trust!  Here's the important part... That trust needs to be in God, not in people.  People WILL let you down and disappoint.  God is ALWAYS faithful and His ways are ALWAYS the best.  So whether you're dealing with marriage problems, health issues, needing provision, having family or children issues, problems at work... Nothing is too big for God to handle!
4. Support is another word that sums up our year.  I have a great support system in my homeschool group, a core group of close friends, and some other ladies that live the LEO life like we do and understand those stresses on a marriage and family.
5. Last but not least, Life is hard!  God NEVER promised us that we'd have enough money, no sickness or no hard times.  In fact, He did promise us that we WILL experience trials of many kinds.  The good news is that whether life is easy or life is hard, God IS always with us!

 

One Year and Counting!

I posted my first blog post just about 1 year ago, on September 6, 2011!

SO much has happened since then!

Every year I write a newsletter that I send out with my Christmas cards and family picture where I recount all the important things that have happened in our family over the past year.  So, I thought maybe it would be fun to do the same for my blog.  

Here are the TOP TEN things that I blogged about this past year!

1. Family: No big surprise there... My family is pretty wonderful, both the ones who live with me and my extended family.  We try to spend a lot of time together and with my husband's schedule, my teens' increasingly busy schedule and our youngest schedule, it's getting harder and harder to do.  But we still do our best!
2. Life:  That's a pretty generic category, I am realizing now.  It includes posts about our vacations, how we celebrate the holidays and various miscellaneous things.  Sometimes I have a little pity party and think things are tough, but when I REALLY stop and think, my life is pretty easy and very blessed.
3. Home:  This goes along with life, and since you can tag a post with multiple category, I'm thinking these have overlapped.  But I can see from this that HOME is very important to me.... I am a stay at HOME mom and I HOMEschool our kids.... and yet I find that some weeks it seems like I am never HOME!  My home is a haven for my husband, so that he can unwind after his long, stressful days at work.  There's no other place we'd rather be than HOME!  Ok, we love the beach and mountains too!  ;)
4. Adoption:  I thought this one would be first.  It has seemed to consume our last year.  I've enjoyed updating everyone on the process and all of our visits and now with how we're adjusting... And who knows, maybe there will be more updates in our future?  We'll see what God has planned for our family...
5. Marriage:  I have a pretty darn good marriage... Sure, we have our problems, mostly because I talk a lot!  ;)  But we haven't gotten to the point of a good marriage without some HARD WORK!  We've both learned that it's not about us being "happy", it's about the commitment we made before God to stay together no matter what and to work at this as harder than we work on anything else.  We love our Dates and we love to spend time together!
6. Homeschool: I didn't want to blog too much about this because it can sometimes be a sensitive subject.  I don't want anyone to think that our decision is what everyone should be doing or that my kids are any better than any others.  This is simply a lifestyle decision that our family has made that we have never regretted....
7. Missions/Ukraine:  This was a BIG year for us with my husband and our oldest son going on a 10 day mission trip to Ukraine.  I have been on a 3 week mission trip in college.  Our daughter hopes to also go to Ukraine in the next year or 2.  Now, I don't think you should go on only 1 mission trip in your life, but at this point, my job is to keep things going at home while other members of my family go on these trips.  We've have changed our spending so that we can save for mission trips.  We were going to start saving for a Disney trip, but realized that for us, sending our teens on mission trips was more important.  Now hear me on this- I'm not saying that a trip to Disney or any other vacation or fun spending is wrong!  For our family, we can't afford to do everything, so the choice we made was for missions.  We'll go on vacations, but that Disney trip is on hold for awhile.
8. Exercise:  This has been hit or miss in my life this year.  I HATE running so that didn't last too long.  We joined a local gym for 2 months and that was nice, but we just didn't have the time to continue it long term.  A friend of mine gave me an exercise bike for free and I was doing well with that, but school, soccer and sickness set me back a little.  I'm hoping SOON to get back into it and make it a regular part of my rountine.
9. Books: I had a lofty goal of reading a bunch of books over the summer and into the fall, but life got in the way.  I still plan on making it through my stack, but it's definitely going to take me into 2013 to get it done!
10. LEO Life:  Oh, wow... How embarrassing!  It's been such a terrible year for law enforcement but I didn't want to talk about it too much and annoy people.  I don't think that law enforcement is any better than any other person, but I realize the stressful job they have and the disrespect they encounter from both criminals and law abiding citizens.  I also know that my friends and family are VERY supportive of our crazy life.  Not every LEO family has that and so I am thankful that we do!

I have enjoyed this last year of blogging and am looking forward to this coming year and seeing all God has in store for us!