2012 - the year of 'BIG'

Here we are on the cusps of 2013 and I just need to say “What a year it has been!”  I think for me/us it has been one of the biggest, with the biggest changes, the biggest challenges, the biggest growth and a year of the biggest blessings (in more ways than one).

Of course our biggest blessing would have to be the birth of our sixth child, Jesse. Born at home on the 5th December 2012, in the midst of family and some of the people that will love him the most.  Biggest being ‘our gift from God’ and our biggest being a rather impressive 9lb 15oz!  He was also a surprise breech which makes his birth all the more amazing.

Father and Son meeting each other for the first time!

   He is so adorable and he is VERY well loved by all his siblings who fight over who is going to hold him first, who got the longest cuddle and who is going next! 

 I am so in love with this little man and I can only wish I realised the short amount of time they remain so small and dependant when I had my first and second.  Being number six he is getting so loved on and I recognise in myself that I am so much more relaxed, I know how I want to and should  parent and  pretty much no one tells me to do it any differently.  This is me. And if I am going to cuddle him all night long then I am going to do it.  “You’ll be making a rod for your own back if you do that” has been tossed into conversations with me in the past.  And now my response would be (even if it would be in my own head)  “My rod, my back - now leave me alone!!”



Every year our traditions on Christmas Eve is to give the kids one present to open just before bed and its always brand new PJ's (all washed and ready to wear).  The older ones of course know what the present is but never say anything to the younger ones for whom it is still a surprise.  The photo below is the first photo we took of all six kids together.  Aren’ t they a good looking bunch?



Do you know how hard it is to get EVERYONE looking at the camera all at the same time AND smiling!  Near impossible!

 Our biggest change and the biggest challenge this year would be Jamie been at home for a whole entire year.  I am not going to call it being ‘out of work’ anymore because that isn’t where we are anymore.  For the first half of the year we were trying to make sense of all that happen and grieving for the loss of job (and income) and were busy looking and trying to replace what we had loss with the exact same thing. The money, the car, the position and the responsibility.  We prayed hard for a new job for him, believing that we couldn’t survive much longer but GUESS WHAT we have!  I feel quite triumphant about that but also very humbled by it.  There is no way that we could of survive and survived well without the blessings and provisions from God.  Yes we have had to make some changes, big changes.  What we buy, where we go and what we do has all been effected. But our vege garden has NEVER looked better! 



 

 

 

I am not saying that it has been easy because it hasn’t.  At times we have been discouraged and down about not being able to have or do the things that we think we need and want to have and do.  But we used to have those moments when Jamie was working.  By the second half of the year we both really felt Jamie is to attend Ministry Training next year and once we decided that we felt there was a great weight lifted off our shoulders and the last six months of the year has been a time of preparation and rest.  I know that the coming year is going to be a huge adjustment for us all, a huge shift in thinking and it will more than likely be filled with its own kind of hurdles and bumps in the road to overcome.  But we will just take one day at a time, put one foot in front of the other and keep on walking.

2012 has been a year for growth for me personally as I have had to put all my trust for everything in our Saviour.  I have gone deeper in not only in the Word but in also in some of my relationships with people.  Growth is inevitable when you open yourself up and have a determination to learn from whatever struggles and challenges come your way.  I now know more about myself than ever before.  My friendships have grown deeper and stronger because that’s what happens when you are in need of the strength and encouragement of others.    
 

 

 

So as we close the Chapter that has been this year I can say that I will look back on it with fondness and gratitude. I will cherish the year forever.   I am also ready to receive 2013 with open arms, an open mind and an open heart - as scary as that maybe.

 

Photo by Kaysha Leigh Budd

 

 



"I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit". - Dawna Markova

Happy New Year!