This year will end without a bang for us. We have no Cuban neighbors with a large extended family and a penchant for partying, so I look forward to sleeping in the new year.
The Year in Review (for my own future reference: please don't feel like you need to read it)
January: Mark begins the process of becoming certified to teach in Georgia. I think that it might really happen, but I don't think much because I'm too sick in the first trimester of my pregnancy.
February: More of the same. Find a house on-line that looks perfect, but the seller has decided not to sell it.
March: Ditto. House goes on sale.
April: House still for sale. Mark still not certified to teach. Still doesn't have a job, but we put a contingent offer on a house in Georgia.
May: Ditto.
June: House finally sells--two days after the contingent offer expires and builder decides not to renew it, but is willing to sell the house to us for $5000 more. No, thanks. Extremely large pregnant woman must pack everything in house, thinking of what she will need right away, and what can wait until she finds a house. Mark learns that he may not have what he needs to get certified in Georgia, but he's already accepted a position at a school. Oh, the panic.
July: Move into parents' house for an indefinite period of time. Extremely monstrously large pregnant woman traipses around the county looking for the perfect house. Finds it--right next door to the house she originally wanted to buy, but the owners backed out of the deal and accepted an offer for $5000 more than what they agreed to sell it to us for. Finally settle on a dark, drabby house that is need of more TLC than I wanted to give it. Mark starts work, working 16-18 hour days.
August: Get the shock of my life by having twins. Twins! I'm still not over it. Anytime I have my babies against my cheeks I want to laugh or cry. And the most horrible thing of the year--the encounter with DFCS--began. People from two churches come to our aid and work diligently to get the house ready for us to move in on August 31. The house is no longer dark and drabby, but absolutely beautiful and perfect, albeit disorganized.
September: My baby boy turned 5! Things with DFCS still muddled. Still sleep deprived. Grandma and Grandpa Thompson stay with us for almost the entire month. Becky arrives. Mark is now only working 12-14 hour days. Mark buys a chair, and I buy a van.
October: I turn 35. Becky leaves, and our DFCS case was closed, but we chose to fight the decision. On my own for the first time since the twins were born. A little shaky, but we seem to muddle through.
November: Panel review of DFCS case, Thanksgiving. First outing with all six children went well.
December: Still haven't heard the results of the DFCS panel review. First Christmas together in Georgia.
The end of this year finds me very blessed, and hopefully next year will find me more thankful.
4 comments:
A very dear, faithful friend has encouraged me in the area of thankfulness. We don't have to "feel" thankful, but we are to give thanks in everything. It is a command. That has always struck me as near impossible! Am I really to thank God for EVERYTHING, even the awful things that left me in a mess of tears? Yes, because ultimately even all that horrible stuff will bring glory to Him. So thank God for all the lack of sleep and every other thing you can think of, good and bad. You don't have to wait until next year to be more thankful, you can do it now. I am speaking this to myself even more as I write this to you dear Jennifer. Your life and family is a beautiful work of God.
I once read this quote on a church billboard and I find it SO true. "Thankfulness is the soil in which joy grows." I have many times wondered why I am not a more joyful Christian and I think I found that being thankful is the key.
Love you lots!!
I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregations. The works of the Lord are great (like making the Thompsons and the twins and ordaining the events of 2006 in their lives), studied by all who take pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious: and his righteousness endures forever. (Paraphrase of Psalm 111:1-3)
Becky, you are a P.Y.R.
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