Goodbye 2019

Final Days of 2019

There are only 14 days left in 2019. Wow, this year has been a doozy for sure. Good riddance 2019. Hard to believe that as I sit and recap this past year, that this has all just happened in 12 months’ time. In 2018, even though I had a baby, it was probably the easiest and most enjoyable carefree year, ever. This year, was not the same. It was a rollercoaster of emotions experiencing major highs and major lows. While this year was tough, maybe one of the toughest years in my life, I don’t want to ignore the fact that we have also had many joys and celebrations. 

Recap of 2019

• Early January we were thrilled to find out we were pregnant. 
• End of January, we experienced our first miscarriage. 
• February we celebrated Luke’s 1st birthday with family and friends. Such a happy time.
• Early March we were shocked and excited to be pregnant again and so quickly.
• Early March, Luke took his first steps! I was so thankful he did this about a day before I left for a women’s retreat with my church, but Mitchell missed it because he was on a work trip in Germany.
• Mid-March we were told that our second pregnancy was going to end in miscarriage again.
• End of March, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and I had my miscarriage.
• April and May were pretty uneventful besides the fact that Mitchell was miserable and hated his job and I was still processing my new diagnosis. I did start my MS treatment in May.
• Early June we found out we were pregnant again. Feelings of excitement and fear were present since we had experienced two miscarriages earlier this year.
• Mid-July we went on a weekend retreat with our church. We truly felt the power and presence of God. We feel blessed that halfway through the year we were able to get away to focus on our faith. We were reminded of how God sees us and created us, and we were given the opportunity to truly let go of strongholds that create evil and hate in our lives.
• Mid-July we found out my sister-in-law has Stage 4 Colon Cancer. This felt like a punch in the gut. To this day, I still feel like this diagnosis isn’t real. It just sucks.
• Nothing super noteworthy happened during the month of August. I am okay with that!
• In September Mitchell moved into a new job at Expedia. We were thrilled about a new opportunity for growth and change.
• End of September and early October we took a much needed and overdue family vacation to Hawaii. We had an absolute blast playing with Luke and spending quality time together. We were thankful for this time away, and I may have been bitter the first day we were back home that we weren’t playing at the beach.
• Middle to end of October – call me crazy, but we decided to potty train Luke just before he was 20 months old. The first week was quite messy, to say the least, but we are so thankful we decided to take the chance. He is doing awesome and only wears diapers during naps and nighttime. We are so proud of Luke and we are now crossing our fingers that he doesn’t regress when his baby sister comes into the picture. If he does, we will figure it out.
• End of October – I got in a fender bender. Literally, the dumbest accident ever (the other lady is claiming whiplash, but whatever lol). Just added a bit of spice to our 2019.
• November we were blessed to be able to attend another church retreat. We are finding these retreats to be so useful in recentering our faith, focusing on hope, and remembering that God is good.
• December – just when you think, ahh, we are in the clear, it’s the holiday season. NOPE. We had a MAJOR plumbing issue. Back in the summertime, we had some work done on our septic tank. Since then, we had two times where our toilet backed up and flooded our downstairs bathroom. We called plumbers and thought it was fixed. This time around, they discovered that we literally didn’t have a pipe that exists from our house drain to our septic. So apparently, for who knows how many years, all of our waste has been draining under our patio and yard. Lovely. 
• Just yesterday we found our deep freezer had somehow been unplugged (again – this happened in 2018 and I lost 500 oz of breastmilk). We lost a whole freezer full of food. On the plus side, now it is empty and ready for my milk storage in 2020. 

Feeling Hopeful

Isn’t that quite the year? I am seriously hoping that the remaining days in December are mostly filled with holiday joy and happiness and nothing too dramatic or serious. I realize that the turning over of the calendar year doesn’t equate to a guaranteed easy 2020. I know that life will go through phases of easy years like 2018 and hard years like 2019. Unfortunately, we don’t know how long each of those phases is going to last. 

But, I have hope! I am hopeful that this new year, Jesus can give me peace when I feel stressed or overwhelmed, strength when I need more energy, and joy to remember the ways in which I am beyond blessed. 

Filled with Joy

Just the other day, when I was playing with Luke, his giggles and excitement were almost too much for my heart to handle. I stopped and thought to myself, how can I be sure to remember this joy and happiness forever? How can I be sure to enjoy every moment with my children and be thankful for their health and laughter? And, how do I implement more of that into my life as an adult? 

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

Philippians 4:4

It isn’t always easy to be joyful, but joy fills our heart and soul and gives us the strength to move forward. Some days, months, and years are harder than others, but there are always pockets of joy to reach into and pull out what we need to fill us up. So whether 2019 was a great year for you or a tough year for you, I encourage you to stop and think of at least three things that brought/bring you joy.