A Reflection on 2009

What a year! If I (Melissa) had to pick two themes that would describe this last year it would be waiting and that less is more. I can remember last year around Christmas wondering what 2009 would look like; mostly wondering if there would be another baby in our household. You see we had been trying to get pregnant for quite awhile at that point with no results. This was so difficult for me not just because month after month we felt disappointed, but because I am a planner and for the most part things have come to me pretty easily in life. As I am sure the same is true for the majority of us, when life is going good and things are easy we can tend to not rely on God and in many ways take him out of the equation. So, thinking that we got pregnant very easily with Bailey I consulted myself (and Luke of course) and decided what I wanted and what I thought would be best for our family. Therefore, I couldn't understand why God didn't agree with my plan of how things should be. My plan would have been to have our children anywhere from 14-18 months apart and when that didn't happen I would settle for 2 years apart. I can't believe how tightly I held onto any control I had in that area, and can remember almost to the day I released that control of the timing of our pregnancy and what that would mean our family would look like. God used a period of waiting, a miscarriage, a surgery, and some more waiting to break me of this need I have to always be in control and ultimately to trust Him with certain areas of my life I have never let him into. It's amazing that I can look back on this time of waiting and see it as a blessing because at the time I was in a tough place with God. I rememeber clinging to 2 Corinthians 12:9 "For my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness". The good news is that God did allow us to get pregnant, and although we are still waiting to hold baby #2, he or she will be here before we know it. I am also getting lots of good time with Bailey that I had never put into my equation, but boy does she seem like she needs it lately. She is totally one of those kids who when they don't get good attention they will seek the bad attention.

This leads me to the second theme of the year, which is the concept of less is more. I think any mother can agree that at some point to stay sane you just have to start letting things go because you can't do everything. Well, I guess it took the combination of working part-time, being pregnant (and very sick at the beginning), and having a toddler to finally help me prioritze my extracurricular activities, and give myself a break if I don't get it all done. I also learned to say no and to ask for help. Before my first year of teaching my mentor teacher told me something that still sticks with me (even if I forget it from time to time), He said "Don't get caught up trying to teach everything, but whatever you do teach, teach that well." I have taken that principle and applied that to life right now in the form of not trying to do everything, but whatever I do, I want to do that well. So what does that look like around Christmas time at our house? It means that we are not making ourselves so busy that we forget what's truly important about Christmas. Therefore, I am not usually not getting all of my to-dos done, and I would not be surviving without the constant help of my Lukie Dukie. What was most important to us is that we as a family took the time to actually spend time together and start some meaningful family traditions, namely the reading of Christ's birth. We are about half way done with our Advent Christmas Tree. Basically I copied an idea from another mother I met in MOPS last year, and broke the story of Christ's birth into 25 parts (one for each day of December). The fun part for Bailey is that we get to put an coresponding ornament up on her mini tree, and get to drink hot cocoa with marshmallows during story time. We didn't know how much she would get out of this year, but if nothing else she now knows that we read out of the Bible about Jesus. I can't wait to see what 2010 brings as we settle into being a family of four, but mostly what God has in store for us.

Bailey REALLY wanted to take a picture with her tree (as mentioned above).

Bailey pointing out the Magi ornament, which we put up the day before yesterday.

I know it's kinda hard to see the ornaments, but here's the website I purchased them from: jessetreeornaments.wordpress.com . One of the things I love about the ornaments is that I don't have to worry about Bailey breaking them because they are made of cloth. I also liked the fact that I didn't have to run around finding the 25 different ornaments. The website also lists another way to do an Advent Tree by doing a Jesse Tree, which starts with Jesse (David's father and it was from David lineage that Jesus came) and you work your way through the Bible. Check it out if your interested.