A Look Backwards

As I mentioned yesterday, when the year comes to an end, I tend to take time to reflect on all that has taken place. Only, this year, it has been a little harder process. Don’t get me wrong, we have had a ton of blessings in 2014, however, this year has also brought a lot of sadness. A lot can happen in a year. It’s crazy how much has changed.

Wedding bells rang in January, so Kevin and I flew to New Mexico to celebrate the wedding of my cousin Kayla to her husband Kevin. We had so much fun with our family on that trip and danced the night away. Their wedding was so adorable and we were so glad to get to celebrate with them.

February was really jam packed with events. Kevin and I both went to Passion 2014 in Houston with the college group from our church and then I turned around the next day and flew to California for CPC (Children’s Pastors Conference). It was such a great time to reflect and get refreshed. However, on the way home from CPC my little world dramatically started to change. My dad called me as I was boarding the plane to let me know that my Aunt was diagnosed with a Brain Tumor. They weren’t exactly sure of the details yet, just that it was pretty big and surgery was coming soon.

As the days passed into March, the surgery didn’t quite go as planned and we found out she has a very aggressive type of terminal brain tumor. On top of this, my grandparents moved into an assisted living place and my grandfathers Alzheimer’s worsend. Them moving was pretty sad for me, because they have lived in the same house my whole life. It was just hard to picture not going there when I came in town or for holidays. But, despite the sadness, I know that it was good decision for our family. We also went to Louisiana at the end of the month for our friends wedding. We had a blast making memories with friends; we won’t be forgetting that weekend for awhile. Great stories.

April was pretty calm. Besides a crazy work schedule, nothing super eventful happened!

Oh May… May started with an amazing benefit for my Aunt. I was blown away by the amount of people in attendance and the amount of funds raised. The love in the room was incredible and took my breath away. The whole event was extremely emotional and humbling all at once. The next day, I came home to find that our house was broken into. Not a fun way to start any week, let alone that week. They stole a ton of stuff out of our house and I spent the rest of the month on the phone with the police department and insurance trying to get everything settled and back in place.

& June started with great memories. Kevin’s sister Jamie got married in Austin and we spent the weekend with family at all the wedding festivities. It was such a fun, cozy wedding and weekend away. The rest of the month was not so much fun. My grandfather with Alzheimer’s passed away the Monday morning before my birthday. It was a phone call and moment I will never forget. Just incredible sadness. Kevin was an amazing husband that week and supported me beyond belief. The next few days were blurry and we found out Friday, on my birthday, that my other grandfather passed away.

With all of the death and sadness in the last few weeks of June, we decided to go home for 4th of July and spend it with our parents. Kevin’s parents bought a new lake house so it was the perfect spot for all of us to hang out on the 4th. Kevin and I also celebrated our 3 year anniversary at La Cantera Resort (where he proposed) and we started planning our vacation to New York!

Despite all of the negative throughout 2014, August will forever hold a special place in our heart. In the midst of everything, we were blessed with the surprising news that I was pregnant. We were not trying, so it was a huge surprise, but such a great blessing for our year. God works in crazy ways and brought a lot of sunshine to our year with this news.

September started out amazing. I think we found out on the last day of August that were pregnant then we left for our New York/Washington D.C. trip a few days after. Kevin and I had such an amazing time in Washington D.C. We walked over 30 miles, I had huge blisters, we were incredibly sore, but we really enjoyed all the sites of the city and getting to have dinner with some friends of ours. While on the New York portion of the trip, we went to the U.S. Open Finals, a Yankees game and a Mets game. While D.C. stole our hearts in terms of architecture and history, we loved the sports of New York. Plus, we soaked up our last vacation as a party of two!

After a breath of fresh air in September, and the joy of getting ready to announce our pregnancy, October brought a bitter taste to our mouths. My Aunt Connie passed away unexpectedly after a routine surgery. We happened to all get the news on a Tuesday night, and Wednesday, all of our family opened up their mail to our pregnancy announcement. Weird timing to experience such joy in the midst of sadness, but it was also a light for our family in that moment. Having some type of good news through our hard year was refreshing.

The year started to wind down in November, and after 3 deaths and a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer for my aunt, we just wanted to be with family for the Holiday and focus on our blessings.

I will admit, I impatiently waited for December to find out the gender of our sweet baby. I went back and forth about having a gender reveal party, but am so glad that we did! The party was so awesome and having our friends and family with us when we found out we are having a girl was priceless. The day was just so filled with joy and excitement. It was a day and feeling I will never forget. We also got to see all of our family again for Christmas and it was nice to just all be together (and eat good food of course).

So, despite all of the bad things in 2014, I will continue to count my blessings from 2014 as well. I know that tough years are inevitable and that no matter what God is good. I am so incredibly thankful for my husband and the rock he has been for me this year. Here’s to hoping 2015 has more smiles and joy than I can fathom!

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