Our Christmas Letter

Every year in our Christmas card, I like to include a letter that recaps our year for friends and family. I know they care about us and want to know what's going on in our lives (why else would you be reading this?) so it seems to be a nice tradition. When I sat down to try and write our letter for this year, I found it very hard to put into words the year that we've had. I thought the best way to share our year with everyone is to share a few blog posts from this past year in addition to a letter.

Our year started off with a good old fashioned southern snowstorm. You know, the kind that makes bread and milk disappear from the grocery store shelves, brings the ciy to a halt and grounds the world's busiest airport? Dustin and I were forced the cancel all of our plans and spend the week with each other at home... it was wonderful.

In February, Dustin was promoted to the Area Director of Atlanta K-Life for the following year when we made the decision that he would stay on staff. The Lord made it clear that He was not finished using us to further the ministry and impact the kids here in Atlanta. It has been very apparent over this past year that this was the right decision for us and God has blessed us through it.

In May, we celebrated our 4th anniversary, our first year in our new home and went on a wonderful cruise with my side of the family. We also had something else to celebrate. On April, 26th, we learned I was pregnant and we could not have been more excited. In addition to planning some really fun events at the hospital and with K-Life (this was the first summer that Dustin was full-time with K-Life and he really enjoyed being able to plan summer activities and spend more time with the guys), we were busy making plans for our little one that was to come.

At my 12 week doctor's appointment on June 24th, we learned some heartbreaking news.  The rest of our year (and really our lives) will forever be changed because of this day. In a moment, we went from being excited parents to experiencing a loss that neither of us was prepared to handle. Because of the specific type of miscarriage I had, the process after was incredibly long. As I write this almost 6 months later, some of the pain is still there, but there is also hope and trust in a God that is in control. Dustin and I grew closer together as we learned daily how to get through this. Psalm 34:18 says "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" and we never knew just how true that was until now.

For highlights from the rest of our year, feel free to read some of my previous posts. I can recommend this one, this one and this one.

Last year, the title of our Christmas letter was "Blessed Beyond Belief". If I had to make a title for this one it would be "Still Blessed". Through all of this we've learned just how big our God is and what he is capable of. We've learned the value of loving friends and families that God uses for comfort and encouragement. We've learned to not take a single thing for granted, and we've leaned that no matter what happens, God is still God and God is still good... always.

We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!