2018
With the beginning of the new year comes high hopes and expectations. There is so much to be excited for! 2017 was a time of humbling, learning, refining and trusting. This year I’m taking what I’ve learned from the former and running into it without fear and arms open wide! My heart takes leaps when I think about the year ahead and I just can’t keep it to myself! So here are the top three things that I’m most anxiously anticipating.
- ADOPTION
Let me tell you a little bit about my heart for adoption. Ever since I was young, I knew I would adopt. My little sister was adopted from Russia, so I’ve grown up with first-hand experience of how natural and fierce love was formed between our family and my little sister. There was never a doubt in my mind that I would adopt and when I dated Josh, it was one of the make or break it’s for me, so I made sure he was down before anything got too serious. We had always talked about having our own children first and then when they were older, adopting a baby internationally. It wasn’t until this last year that God has shaped and reshaped my vision for adoption. After a bad birth experience and an ever-deepening passion for the fatherless, I felt the Spirit of God asking me, “why wait?”. So, last year Josh and I decided we would start the adoption process this year. I did a ton of research about what route to take. At first it was international, then it was private domestic and finally, God has lead us to matched adoption through foster care. I can’t even tell you how excited I am! I don’t know if you’ve ever felt what it feels like to be following God’s leading….but it is thrilling! I know that He will guide us, prepare us and match us to the son or daughter that He intended for us. Currently, we are waiting to start classes in February through an organization called, Foster the Bay. Be praying for us!
2. IRELAND
It’s happening! We booked our flights, we reserved our Air BnB’s and have got my parents watching the wee one for the week! Josh and I have only ever been out of the country together on missions trips, so we are ENTHRALLED at the opportunity to explore a new place together and reconnect as a couple. We’ve talked about going to Ireland together since we started dating and I can’t believe it’s actually happening! I’ve never spent a night away from my dear Selah, but I’m ready! I’m sure the second I leave her at the airport I’ll burst into tears (cuz she’s my fave) but the first time I hear a warm Irish accent, I’ll be too excited to be sad she’s not there. We are blessed blessed blessed to get to do this and I’m counting down the days until April!
3. PHOTOGRAPHY
I remember telling Josh years ago that if I could have any job in the world, I’d want to be a photographer. To me that was the same as saying, “I want to be a ballerina or an astronaut”, it wasn’t a reality. I’ve always looooved looking at photos, posing them and coming up with ideas for them, but the camera itself seemed impossible and overwhelming to use. There was this one time, Josh and I were on our way back from a roadtrip to Canada and we stopped at this zoo in the middle of nowhere in Oregon. This zoo had a unique exhibit where you could literally play with a baby tiger and after Josh took photos of me, he asked me to take one of him with the tiger. Every single one turned out blurry and out of focus. Suffice it to say, I sucked. I always thought you needed a formal education in photography for some reason, so I didn’t think I was even qualified to take photos. Honestly, I got super inspired by one of my former students. She decided to follow her passion and learn photography on her own, she even took our family photos while practicing, and it encouraged me that I could do it too! The past few months I have been watching countless YouTube videos on all things photography, my husband has been taking me out to different scenery in different lighting and has been teaching me how to use our camera and I just keep practicing and practicing and I’m so excited at the thought of actually doing this I could burst! This year, I plan to take this whimsy of mine to the next level and capture as many magical moments as possible. I have a real soft spot for capturing the love between a mother and child (obvi) so that will be my focus or forte if you will, but I’m open to all opportunities and adventures behind the lens. If you’d like me to practice my photography on you this year…hit a sister up!
I expect 2018 to have a lot of good things as well as hard things, because…life, but I know that with Christ guiding us through His ever-present love, we can’t go wrong.