2013: A Year of Transition & Blessing

Well, hello!  It's been nearly 6 months since my last post - where has the time gone?  I won't bore you with all the details of the blog posts I've started and never finished.  It's a new year, and although I'm not necessarily resolving to be a "better blogger", we'll see what the new year brings!

To wrap up all the details of the second half of 2013 in one post would be long and boring (because most of it includes working long hours during long weeks, and I have a feeling you don't care about Bryan's new root canal system or other discoveries made in the dental office).  But, if you would indulge me, I'd love to reflect on 2013 as a whole, just briefly, how it changed Bryan and I forever.... then we will move on to this year!

The Lord has filled my heart with such gratitude for the multitude of blessings He lavishly bestowed on us throughout last year.

- passing boards - graduating dental school - a celebration trip -

- grandparents' heath decline, then recovery, then more decline -

- a new house - a new job - a new town - a new church -
- new friends - new sister-in-law - new nephews -

Truly, we have been blessed abundantly above and beyond what we could ask or imagine.  And we thank our Heavenly Father for these blessings.

The Lord promises to give us what we need.  Yet frequently He gives us above and beyond, and for that it is fitting to praise Him for His goodness, to remember this time in the future when things may not look or feel as rosey, and to point others to the one who gives us all good things.

Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the clouds.

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;

your judgments are like the great deep;

man and beast you save, O LORD.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Psalm 36:5-7