A Good Year

With each passing year, life just seems to get sweeter and sweeter. Honestly, I think that the sweetness factor is owed mostly in part to a deepening faith and relationship with Jesus Christ and a partnership with a man that I love, respect, and just like to hang out with. This past year has been the best so far in my life, and it sure has been one wild ride! In my lifetime, very few years will rival the action packed twists and turns of 2009... but that's what made it so very special! So here's to 2009... and to the many sweet moments:

We rang in the new year in sunny Florida surrounded by family and loved ones...

Then conquered a marathon, finishing side by side after 26.2 long miles.

We said our goodbyes to a beloved member of our family, but it gave us the opportunity to spend time with those loved ones we don't see often enough.


We had some fantastic weekends and times away in cities far from home...

And then spent the spring busy with wedding plans and festivities.

We said our "I Do's" and vowed to love each other for the rest of our lives on a most perfect summer day in June...

And (barely) squeezed in a romantic mini-honeymoon before...

Packing up our belongings and making the long trek to Illinois.


We successfully purchased our first home and fell in love with every nook and cranny...

And even loved the nooks and crannies that needed updating (which we've done a lot of).

We learned that life in Small Town, Illinois is a life that we absolutely love and met some of the most genuine, kind, and caring people in this world.

We celebrated as our campus of Crossroads Community Church opened its doors and continued to grow and blossom...

And celebrated God's glory as Josh baptized his wife. We continued (and still do) to deepen our individual faith as we thank God daily for His gift of marriage.

We experienced the excitement, shock, and bewilderment of some unexpected news and prepared ourselves to bring a new life into this world.

Several visitors made their way to Small Town, Illinois and gave us the opportunity to show off our new town and open our home to friends and family (feel free to continue that trend!)...

And FINALLY got the exciting news that our new arrival would be a baby boy, which was music to our ears as we both had a feeling all along.

We learned that home is where the heart is and hosted our first family holiday at Thanksgiving, serving dinner for 10 of our favorite people...

and survived our first (of many) snowfall.

And as icing on the cake, we spent Christmas in our new home with just the two (or three!) of us, truly being thankful that this is the life that we live.

What a year of many, many blessings. It is by far one that we will never forget as we have learned a lot, experienced so much, and adapted to whatever came our way. I know that throughout our marriage and life together, things will not always be so easy, but I know that we will always have more blessings than we know what to do with and for that I am thankful. So as we say goodbye to 2009, we celebrate the times that we had and look forward to the adventure to come in the new year. Happy New Year to you and your family, and may you have more laughter than tears, hope than doubt, and more blessings bestowed upon you than you even know what to do with. We love you all and look forward to all that is to come!