A year's happenings

Serene Joy during the year end service this past Sunday

As we approach a brand new year, I am prompted to reflect on this past year. 2014 has simultaneously been a gift and a whirlwind. In 2014:

• I returned to work from maternity leave the day Serene Joy turned three months, one of the hardest realities I've ever faced.
• Alex and I celebrated our two-year anniversary.
• Alex attended a pastor's conference, during which Serene and I had our first girls' week without our favorite guy.
• We celebrated our Lord and Savior's resurrection on Easter Sunday.
• We went vintage rummaging for my first official Mother's Day.
• Alex graduated from seminary with his Master's in Divinity.
• We celebrated Alex's seminary graduation and 28th birthday with a birthduation fiesta.
• We heaped lots of love on Alex for his first official Father's Day.
• We took our first family road trip up north this past summer.
• I received my dream promotion: stay-at-home mamahood.
• Serene Joy attended her first Vacation Bible School, a decade after I attended my first one.
• We celebrated Serene's first birthday with a woodsy one-derland bash. She tasted cake for the first time. We also celebrated as a family at the happiest place on earth. 
• I finished writing monthly letters to Serene during her first year of life.
• Alex got officially installed at our church as the assistant pastor.
• We took our annual (?) family photos.
• We celebrated my 27th birthday at Disneyland and with a sushi feast.
• We dressed up as Alice and her jolly entourage, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, for Halloween.
• We announced our littler love is on the way, who happens to be a boy.
• We reached our one-year anniversary as on-site missionaries at our apartment community.
• We celebrated Christ's birth during the Yuletide season.

So much can and did happen in just a year, more than we could have dared to imagine. As I wrote the highlights down chronologically, I am reminded of God's great kindness and mercy on me and our little family. We are blessed, indeed. I've high hopes for the new year, which I plan to share soon. We cannot wait to see what God has in store for us all in 2015. A very Happy New Year to you and yours!!!