2010 Adieu

Taking down the Christmas Tree always makes me sad.  I love Christmas, I love the magic, the twinkle and sparkle, associated with the Season.  Taking the tree down signifies an end to all of that, the apartment takes on it's usual plain appearance, the furniture moves back to where it belongs, Mia goes back to school, Josh doesn't have the bonus holiday days off...life goes back to normal.
As we take down the sparkles and twinkles it give me the opportunity to reflect on the happenings of the past year.  This one has been a particularly difficult one for my little family.  It started with a massive snow storm that left us trapped inside without power, and due to have a baby any day.  Soon after we experienced the tragic loss of our beloved sister-in-law Taylia. The Death of our much loved Great Aunt Mae. We had a friend with a ruptured appendix, another covered in acid burns, a close former roommate with a broken back, a childhood friend whose three year old Gracie had been fighting Neuroblastoma,(cancer) and a former co-worker and friend who was shot several times for no apparent reason while at work, just to name a few.  To top everything there was a Presidential Order to freeze pay raises for Josh's company for two years, leaving us to decide if we can really afford to purchase a house and get out of our cramped apartment, or if we need to ride it out and see what happens.  It seemed that nearly every time our phone rang it was to bring us more bad news.

However, in the sadness and darkness that has beheld us this year, I would be re-missed to not remember the many wonderful blessing that have been bestowed upon us.  In this past year my family has welcomed three new babies, including our beautiful Wynter-Elizabeth.  We have celebrated three baptism, including Mia's.  We celebrated the Marriage of Josh's little sister Sara, and said farewell to his brother Jarom as he left to teach the people of Paris, France the gospel.  Josh was called as the 2nd Councilor of our Wards Bishopric...with more blessing to come. (soon I hope.)
In the snowstorm, we were reminded of a simpler life, as we sat as a family and played games, and talked. Thankfully Wynter waited to come until the roads had been cleared.   We enjoyed the moments in the Hospital after Wynter was born, my parents had been stranded in Denver, and a storm hitting Pittsburgh that made it unsafe for Josh to take the girls home, as a result we all slept in that little hospital room.  Josh held Mia in the fold out chair, while I cuddled McKinlee in the bed, with Wynter at our side.  It was a treasured memory of our first night with our beautiful new sister/daughter, that I will never forget.
Our testimony in Eternal Families grew as we struggled with the loss of Tay. How grateful we are for the small and simple truth that death is not the end, and we will be together with her again. 
I can also see the hand of the Lord in our lives and the lives of our friends, Gracie is doing well and will hopefully be hearing the blessed word "remission" soon.  The friends who were burned by acid, and had a ruptured appendix have recovered.  My friend who was shot was able to be home for Christmas, and even though he has several surgeries to come what a blessing being home has been to his little family, indeed he is a miracle. 

Mia's baptism was beautiful, and I am so grateful to have such a wonderful daughter who was so excited to take the steps of Baptism, and live the Gospel so righteously.  She is such a strong and wonderful example to those around her, especially to her sisters and Josh and I.
Although the pay freeze have changed our plans, we are so blessed that we still have a stable job, that we haven't had to take a decrease in our pay.   We have just had to put our dreams on temporary hold...and that's not too bad.

It has indeed been a difficult year for us, but when we look back and see the Lord's hand as he helped us through, as we were comforted, and blessed.  We can't help but be grateful for the growth, and peace we have felt.

So I will put away the decorations, hopeful of a better year to come, and anxious to bring the twinkle and sparkle back in 11 short months.