"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; May the name of the Lord be praised."
Job 1: 21
I cannot believe yet another year is coming to a close! 2010 has been a long, hard year, but has been filled with many blessings as well!! Emma turned 3 in January, and a few weeks later we learned we were expecting baby #3! In the couple of months following my granddad was diagnosed with lung cancer, and we celebrated Bryson's first birthday. The next several months were filled with ups and downs of my granddad being in and out of the hospital quickly declining in health. Though the days in the hospital were long and stressful with a 3 year old, a one year old, and a growing belly, I am grateful for the times we were able to share and that I was able to be there with and for my grandparents. During those months, our house also sold, we started building our new home and moved in with my parents. July 28th, my granddad went to be with the Lord. September 24, we welcomed our third blessing, Ava, into our family. A month later, we moved into our new house, and my best friend's mom went to Cleveland for major heart surgery. Unfortunately, she went to be with the Lord also a couple of weeks prior to the surgery. And then we hit the holidays without a moment to rest...and I feel exhausted just putting the year into writing! I don't know that I'll ever be able to process all that hit in this short year that has seemed close to an eternity, but I do know that my heart has been forever imprinted by the two great losses of life and one amazing gain in my little family over the last 4 months.
Obviously, it has been a busy year for our family. The kids are doing well and have amazed me through it all! Emma is a great big sister, and I am so grateful for her help and independence. She was excited about her new room and quickly requested pink! She loves pretending to talk on the phone, dressing up, packing up and "going to the beach", role playing, being with her friends, and, of course, tending to Bryson and Ava. She is finally enjoying choir at church, and loves any classes she goes to, and we are working on memorizing her children's catechism and some Bible verses. The hardest part of the first few catechism questions for her was that they weren't elaborate enough for her. : ) She continues to be a sweet, gentle spirited little girl and very nurturing.
Bryson is 20 months and is more than all boy! My sweet little man is often referred to with the words crazy and wild, and often hears his full name and the words, "no" and "stop"! He also brings us much joy and laughter, and I am equally grateful for him! He has definitely challenged me in the arena of sleep...something I remember with fondness and long for in the near future! Ava has surpassed him in the number of times slept through the night. Sleep and attachment have been hard for him since he entered this world, and we surely contributed to those issues with our year. I was concerned about moving twice and having a baby all in about 4 1/2 months, but he handled it pretty well. Once we moved into our new house and he got his own room and bed, he really started doing a lot better, and some nights he even makes it to our bed without tears or noise!! Bryson LOVES tractors though real ones in motion do terrify him. He also loves to read books, play with balls, and has mastered catching; he's trying to get Ava to learn now! Emma and Will played a lot of football this fall, so he picked up on that and loves to put on Emma's helmet and run around throwing or kicking the ball while yelling "tackle" and "touchdown". He adores Emma and wants to be with her playing most of the day, and she loves his company most of the time as well! He has hit the language explosion age, so it is fun listening to him these days.
Ava is 12 weeks now and doing an amazing job surviving in this house! Between Emma picking her up and carrying her and Bryson poking her eyes, trying to feed her cookies, and also attempting to pick her up, there are rare moments that she can "rest easy"! I love all my children equally, but she is my favorite baby! She is soooooo laid back, and she has been sleeping through the night since she was about 6 weeks old! Real sleeping through the night...like 10-6!! Of course that is not every night, but it has been the majority of nights the past 6 weeks. Before anyone starts to hate me, remember the last paragraph...she has slept through the night more than Bryson! She has rolled over some and flashes some amazing smiles! The baby talk is starting to crank up as well, and we are curious as to the personality the Lord has given her.
Ben is working hard to keep the business running in an economy that is still not construction friendly. He continues to think through some future additional business ideas as well, so we'll see what the Lord has in store. We are extremely grateful for the Lord's constant provision and could write pages of how He has provided in amazing and unlikely ways. Ben also did a wonderful and fast job building our house! I don't think either of us imagined we'd be living here right now when we purchased the lot and put our house on the market a year ago. I don't know how he made it through the days and weeks of 16 hour days all week and then several more hours Saturdays with the business and house. Those were LONG days and weeks for all of us, and I am so glad they are over! Ben continues to enjoy hunting and just killed his first deer behind our house this week (also his first kill with a bow). He also started back coaching our high school boys church basketball team this week and is still serving as a deacon at church.
I am still at home and am thankful to be with our 3 precious children! Although the days are sometimes very hard, and I often feel as though I am losing intellectual capabilities. "Thing" is a very regular part of my vocabulary as I too often can think of nothing more. Of course I would not trade one minute of my time with the children and appreciate the burden Ben bears to make it possible for me to raise our children full time! I am still involved in Refresh, a mom's group at church. Ben and I are also still volunteering with the high school kids at church. As we are settling in the house with the kids, I am trying to make sure I really think things through before getting back into any "long term" commitments.
This is my favorite time of year as it reminds us of that most precious and Holy child that came in the most humbling of circumstances to save us from our sins with a sacrificial death! And I love doing our nightly advent devotions as a family and passing along those truths to our children as we keep our focus on the coming of Christ! Of course, Bryson's absolute favorite part this year is to blow out the candles, but Emma is conducting her own advent devotions frequently and singing "Always in a Manger". Too precious! I pray regularly that our children will always be more intrigued with the things of God and the simplicity of the truth we celebrate at Christmas than with the shiny, glamorous, materialistic things of the world.
We are grateful for all that the Lord has done in us and for us in 2010 and are thankful that we serve a God we can trust to continue to provide for us in every circumstance in the coming year. May He bless you and make Himself known to you in the coming year as well! Merry Christmas!
