Ahhh the beloved week between Christmas and New Years. Things are slower and I keep forgetting what day it is 🙃, but it’s also given me an opportunity to reflect back on the Lord’s faithfulness from this year as well as map out my goals for 2019 (will share those soon!). I took some time this morning to sift through my Val Marie Paper Prayer Journal and thought I’d share some of my answered prayers, accomplished goals, favorite moments and just all around good things God did in 2018!
1. LIVELY’S BIRTH: This should come at no surprise, but the birth of our daughter, Lively Mae, was my biggest answered prayer and blessing this year (well, ever really!). The journey to getting pregnant wasn’t easy and there were more challenges immediately following her birth (jaundice, struggles with breastfeeding), but I’m grateful for all of it because it’s led to the most precious gift and a kind of love I can’t even put into words. This girl lights up my world and I truly don’t know how I lived my whole life without her. Thank you, Father, for this tiny glimpse at the kind of love you have for us as your children. It’s indescribable!
2. TURNED 30: On February 19 I celebrated my 30th birthday! I’ll be honest. I was really looking forward to turning 30. Partly because I’m obsessed with the movie 13 Going on 30 #thirtyflirtyandthriving, but mostly because growing older is a gift and I’m grateful for the wisdom that comes with age and experience.
3. CELEBRATED 5 YEARS OF MARRIAGE: And 11 years together! Normally, we mark our anniversary celebration with a fun trip to one of our favorite destinations, 30A, but since we had a 4 month old we decided to enjoy our time at home with our newborn and use the money we would have spent traveling on some new patio furniture. It was a great decision because we really hadn’t been utilizing our small back porch at all and having the furniture provided a nice little sitting area to dine al fresco all summer.
4. PAID OFF MY STUDENT LOANS: This was a HUGE goal for our family going into 2018! It did not come without sacrifices but I’m thankful to have them behind us.
5. OUR GARDEN GREW (WITH VEGETABLES TOO!): This was my second year cultivating our little backyard flower garden. I loved watching God turn the tiny little zinnia and sunflower seeds I planted into the most colorful and vibrant 4ft tall flowers that attract beautiful butterflies and bees. I also tried my hand at vegetables this year too. We had a bounty of roma tomatoes and green bell peppers but the zucchini and yellow summer squash got attacked by squash bugs (literally one of the grossest things I’ve ever seen) and were unsuccessful. It was fun trying something new with the vegetables but I think I’m going to to stick to flowers from now on.
6. AN UNEXPECTED GIFT: If you read my Thanksgiving post then you got a little glimpse and background into our family farm in Thomasville, GA, a place that has always been very near and dear to my heart. This year, my mom very graciously gifted us some of the land and we could not be more grateful and excited! Perhaps a bigger flower garden in our future??
7. COMPLETED WHOLE30 AGAIN: In June I completed my second round of Whole30 and am gearing up for a #JanuaryWhole30 next week! If you’re thinking about doing it, but are kind of intimidated or don’t know where to start, check out this post here.
8. SWEET NEW FRIENDS: This past year, the Lord connected me with so many new friends by way of this blog/Instagram. One of the ones I’m most grateful for is my new friendship with Soo. Thanks to my other friend, Sarah Tucker, Soo and I found each other and quickly bonded over our love for Jesus and struggles with infertility. I once heard someone say that “no matter where you are in the world when you meet another believer, it’s like you suddenly feel at home.” This is the best way to describe “meeting” Soo even if it was through Instagram…. at first! Soo lives in Montana and I live in Florida, but because God is so sweet, He made it possible for Soo and I to meet and spend time with each other IRL and not just on the internet. 🙂
9. FIRST FAMILY VACATION: A few weeks ago, we got to take our first vacation as a family of 3 to Sea Island, GA! Todd and I “babymooned” there last year and it was pretty surreal to have Lively there with us a year later. We kept saying the whole time how we’d love to make it an annual thing and watch her (and prayerfully more kiddos) grow up there over the years. I’m working on a blog post recapping our trip (also including tips for traveling there with a baby) and hope to have it up soon.
10. BREASTFED FOR A YEAR: This may seem kind of random, but breastfeeding Lively for one year was a huge prayer/goal of mine. I’ll be honest. Before I had Lively, I kind of rolled my eyes at moms who were super into breastfeeding. Sure, I wanted to breastfeed my baby but it was more for the nutritional and health benefits and less about bonding. After she was born, we REALLY struggled the first few weeks. She couldn’t latch properly and therefore wasn’t taking in enough milk and we wound up back in the hospital because she was so dehydrated and got jaundice. I remember begging God just to help me make it to 2 weeks. And then after that I prayed to make it to a month. And before I knew it, that month turned into three months, then six and now I still can’t believe that we are just three weeks shy of her first birthday and have exclusively breastfed this entire year. It was really hard and I wanted to give up many times. There were lots of tears and frustration in those early weeks. But thanks to a perseverance that I can only account to the Lord’s strength working through me, we made it and I can officially say that I LOVE breastfeeding and have become really passionate about it! We currently still nurse 4 times a day and I plan to continue until she starts to wean herself or I feel ready to close this chapter for us. 🙂
The Lord works mightily in your life this year, friend! It’s incredible to know that He is always at work, but years like this one filled with such cherished moments serve as mile markers of His faithfulness to look back upon 🙂