Happy New Year!
Well, we did make it to the Planck's last night and am so glad we did. Amy and Matt went with and had a lot of fun, which is a big blessing as well. I'm sore as sore can be, but it was worth it, especially since I'll be sore for awhile anyway. Might as well have fun in the meantime...
Last week we were asked how we would define 2003 and how we would choose to define/carve out 2004. I've actually thought about it quite a bit, and I'd say 2003 was a year of adventure for me. At first I didn't think it was much different, but wow. It's been tremendous, and very very good.
In January I paid off my old school loan from when I didn't finish, and together we made the decision for me to go back to school. A day or so later, I got a phonecall one night from a sister in Christ asking if I would want to take Mike's place on a mission trip to Ecuador in April. I had 3 hours to decide. Yikes... and that was a torturous three hours. I knew I wanted to go, but had been so shut off from living on my own for so long, it scared me to death. Long story short, I went and was blessed beyond measure. Matt and I actually were on the same trip with our pastor-at-the-time, Allan Hutchinson. We got to see our former pastors, Jon and Karen Lambert... and I had closure on wounds that had remained painful for many, many years.
In May, Hearts of Praise (the vocal group I was in) sang at Pastor's Fellowship in Winchester, KY, in front of about 800 people. That was a whole new experience -- again frightening but a huge blessing. I began re-learning the fact that God takes you through what he calls you to.
Summer was fairly nondescript until August when we received word that Mike's grandfather had passed away. This whole time was both painful and healing. We had help to get there from the least expected places, and for that we remain grateful. We attended a debt-buster seminar and committed to becoming financially free. And it was during this time God worked through some odd circumstances to bring us to New Life. It was a difficult adjustment at first, and while we don't know people really well still, that is all changing and they are becoming like family very quickly.
My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary not long before my dad got news he had invasive bladder cancer. A long story made short, God spared him and he will not lose his bladder, but undergo precautionary chemo/radiation treatments.
I started school and successfully finished my first semester as an "adult student". Still adjusting to that one, but that's okay. We started Body for Life, which has come to be life altering in a short amount of time. Through it, God has directed us in the path we believe He has for us.
Which brings us to today. 2004. A new beginning. I don't know how the year will be defined. Growth? Discovery? Miracles? We'll wait and see.