Our blessed 2013 year

Looking back on this year it was just such an amazing ride. So many goals were completed and life achievements occurred. But most importantly I feel that my close relationships have gotten stronger. I feel that Jared and I's marriage got to be more unified, closer, and adaptable. I've grown closer to my own mother and father as they helped us buy our first house, and especially since the arrival of my sweet Hilton. My mother has shown me so many things about how to be a good mother, and it wasn't until my baby made his appearance that I grew to truly appreciate the work and life of a mother.

 
But most importantly I feel that I myself have changed significantly. I've become incredibly fiscally responsible. I'm the bill payer in our house and am in charge of making sure we save enough for the car payments, mortgage, and general bills. I got to watch and experience my body doing an amazing feat of creating another human being and being able to give birth to that most precious creation. I have seen myself become more determined by finally pushing to the end of my degree and taking the large step of graduating from college. I am officially a college graduate with a bachelors degree! Five years of tears, sweat, and blood went into that and I will (hopefully) never take the experience for granted.

 

The largest change I have seen in myself was becoming more patient. More patient with Jared, with life, and mostly with myself. I have grown to know myself a little deeper than I did at the beginning of 2013, and I hope that I can learn and grow even more in the year 2014. It's funny how so many things were unplanned at the beginning of this year, and how they just feel into place. We wanted to buy a house, but had no real plans too. We wanted to have a baby but had no control over the timing. I wanted to be done with school but wasn't ready to make the last sacrifices to make it happen. It's so true that the Lord has a plan for us and that we cannot understand or control the timing; but we can have faith that he knows what is best for us and what we need from our time here on earth.

I'm so grateful for my life, for my husband, my health, my baby, my dogs, my house and car, my job, but greatest of all I'm grateful for the belief that each day is a new day and that I can always do better today than I did yesterday. It's inspiring and that's what I'm hoping for this 2014 year. To live each day inspired and to take each day as a blessing. To the comforts, joys, and challenges that lie ahead, here's to 2014!