renew

2009 slipped in on us this winter.  with all the chaos that is our life we hardly noticed the change short of the obvious numeric adjustment…adjustment is the word that would sum up our last year.  we felt constantly in a state of anticipation as we went from one stress-inducing turn to the next, yet each detour along our path brought with it wonderful blessings and opportunity to grow and learn.

some of the destinations?  laila shivered her way through her first birthday on the top of a mountain with her grandparents and aunt visiting to celebrate with her, benjamin dove into the big 3 with a quick departure from toddlerhood (ouch!), we built our first home…and with it a sense of stability that is new and refreshing, joel worked his way through another year of full-time school and a promotion at work, we drove from the mexican border (where we live) to the canadian to spend two weeks in calgary with my parents (benjamin was the best lookin’ cowboy at the 2008 calgary stampede), we helped my brother, sean, move to arizona with us to get a fresh start, we started a small photography business, gained a canine member of the family (jake), lost a baby in november, and spent a wonderful and rejuvenating christmas in oklahoma with family.

so when january came in this year it was natural for life to just keep rolling, why invite more change?  clearly some was great, and some devastating…maybe if we just kept on this road we would find some normalcy, this path could straighten out for a while so you don’t have to wonder what is around the next bend.  those are the feelings we shared, without even discussing it or knowing it until i spoke with a friend this morning.  friend, you know who you are.  thanks.

scary bends are good. real good.  we need them to be reminded of the grace and mercy of a god that desperately loves us, to be kept in check and humbled when we forget what is most important.  not seeing what is ahead is an opportunity to trust, to have a faith that is unwavering and to see it fulfilled.  bends bring heartache and can blindside you, but they also bring blessings that are more wondrous than anything we could have imagined ourselves.

so dear friend of mine, here is to you, and to speaking the truth in love, thank you for your perspective on our blessed lives and for stopping me in my tracks to take in this new year, this fresh, undiscovered path ahead.