NEW YEAR'S EVE!

A look back at 2015…

I feel like 2015 went by quickly for me.  It was a good year.  With how hard 2014 was, I didn't know what to expect with 2015, and I am so happy/relieved/grateful with how this year as turned out. 

Christmas just passed and I often thought back to the holiday season last year (2014), about how difficult it was, how I would have to fake a smile to get through, how much grief I was in…I was afraid all of my holiday’s would feel like that…But this one was so much different than last, thank goodness!  It’s amazing how much can change in a year, good or bad.

I have felt so much joy this holiday season.  I have been able to have fun with the kids doing holiday things without that weight of sorrow and clouds over me like last year and I am so thankful for that.  And having this baby boy moving all around inside me through this season is just an extra reminder of how truly blessed we are, it never gets old feeling your baby move and I can’t help but smile every single time I feel him (which is very often)!

I love my round "baby bump" in this picture of my cousin and I.

Looking back at 2015 it wasn't a super eventful year besides this pregnancy (which to me is huge!), there are some key events that stand out…like all the kids birthdays, sometimes it still amazes me how old they are all getting…Trey’s memorial in May…finding out I am pregnant right before my birthday in August…weekend trip to Pittsburg to visit friends at halloween…finding out this baby is boy (and doing great!)…anniversary of Trey’s delivery in November, our 13 year wedding anniversary the next day…and then my husband being off work the last two weeks of this year for Christmas and New year’s and how nice it’s been with all us being together.  Even though not a lot of big events happened in 2015, it was made up of many, many wonderful small moments which turns out is what can make the biggest impact.

Looking forward to 2016, I don’t have a whole lot of goals or resolutions this year (I actually wrote a post about this for another blog I write for that will be published in a week or two).  Being pregnant obviously I’m not making any weight loss goals like I probably normally would.  I usually make reading goals, which I still am, but I’m only planning what I want to read up to April because after the baby is born I’m not sure how my reading time will change (I read over 60 books this past year!).  

* updated to add the link to the blog post I wrote about making time to read in the new year, 
https://communitymoms.wordpress.com/2016/01/08

This year, as usual, I want to try to be intentional with my time, meet some homeschooling goals, complete some projects/improvements around the house, simplify more, but mostly this coming year I am just looking forward to baby Dylan being born, our family growing and just soaking all that in.

Thank you to everyone who has read my blog over this past year, it started out as a way to get out my story of losing my babies and to reach others going through that but I feel like it’s turned into even more, I love having a place to share what God is doing in our lives, it’s like He is using me to show that hard things can be redeemed, like even though we have had to go through a lot of heartbreak we also have so many prayers that have been answered.  My faith was tested and shaken a lot in 2014, “For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.” James 1:3, but in 2015 it definitely grew stronger than ever before.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!