2011 in Review

Phillip Yancey said "I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what only makes sense in reverse." And I think that his quote is a great one to sum up our year as a family.

At the end of 2010 when we realized that David had lost his job, I think we naively thought that it would only be a few months until we would be serving at another church. We quickly got our house ready, packed up stuff that we didn't think we would need for a while, and put a for sale sign on our house. At the time I was so sad to leave our church and the people that had grown to be my family. As a girl that lives states away from her own home, I had grown to depend on the people in our church and was comfortable there, and I honestly wasn't ready to leave our church or the friends I had made there. I was worried about David being home all the time...I figured all that togetherness would end up driving us all crazy after a while :) I was worried about the girls and ruining this perfect little world that they lived in and loved. This was the only church that they had ever known and had so many people and friends that they loved. And honestly as strong as I thought my faith in God was paled in comparison to how much he has taught me about faith this year about His provision and love for all of His children!

And the months ticked by....and God taught us so much!

This year has been full of change and so many blessings for our family. It was a huge change to have David home all the time, and we also went from being a family of four to a family of five when Micah was born. The girls have each grown up so much in the past year and God has shown us over and over His complete grace, love, and provision for us and our family.

I guess we didn't really realize how LONG it takes for some churches to choose a pastor or how much time goes into that process. David sent out dozens upon dozens of resumes and preached at several churches and still a year later we are waiting, but as much as I want us to have a church and be settled, I wouldn't change a thing about the last year. It turns out that having David at home has been the biggest blessing, far more than I ever realized. That much togetherness did not drive us all crazy as I feared, and I will always look back on this year with such thankfulness of the time that we all got to spend together as a family. And for all the months our house sat on the market, we didn't show it to one person. Looking back I can see how God knew that we would need to be here longer than we imagined, and I know that when the time is right and our house goes back up for sale He will provide a buyer when we need one. The girls have done better than I imagined at each of the churches that we have visited or David has preached at, and God has shown us that He will give them comfort and friends no matter where He sends us. In 2011, I have seen over and over the provision of God in our family's life. There have been so many people that have blessed us financially and I have seen His hand in tangible ways like when Micah was born, I didn't have to buy one single thing. He has whispered over and over to us that He sees our family and has a plan. And over a year later I am still sad that I will have to eventually leave people that I love and have considered family, but I know that God will give us new friends and that we will always be able to keep in touch with the people here that we love. All those months of waiting have grown our faith and made us that much more ready and passionate to minister at another church. I cannot wait to see where God leads us and plants our life in ministry. So with all of that I can truly see how "faith is trusting in advance what only makes sense in reverse".