What a Difference a Year Makes

For the last few months, I have just been in awe of how crazy (and wonderful!) my life has been over the last year! Oh my goodness, what a difference a year makes. So, without further ado, here's my year in review.

(haha, that rhymed. Not intentional, I promise.)

January 2008: Trying to make it through my first respiratory season at Children's Hospital, fresh off of orientation.
January 2009: Hanging out with Justin, reworking my resume to apply to work with an orphanage in Moldova and trying to work up the courage to tell Justin that it "just wasn't working".

February 2008: Planning, organizing and speaking at Ground Level's Girls Retreat 2008.
February 2009: Telling all my friends that I liked Justin now, and that I just might be in love with him.

March 2008: Had my first overnight hospital stay as a patient, was despairing of working night shifts, changing to a new migraine medication and had just gotten the BEST present ever, a dishwasher.
March 2009: My laptop BROKE, was working furiously on making things for Etsy, photographing them and just thinking I might be in love with Justin. Since he helped fix my computer and all...you know. AND, the BEST part was that he became my boyfriend (officially) after talking with both sets of my parents.

April 2008: Was in a car accident that hurt my back and then pulled it again a week later lifting a patient at work and got/bought a new camera for my birthday (early present) and was STILL working overnights, becoming convinced of my need for the Lord every day.
April 2009: Loving loving Justin, caught a gastro bug from Children's that Justin helped nurse me through, sent Justin off to Thailand with tears in my eyes, bawled on my floor on the fifth day that he was gone because I missed him so much and decided that I "for sure" needed to marry him. It was here that my heart was convinced and I KNEW I wanted to marry him.

May 2008: Turned 24, working overnight, lost my phone and getting increasingly FRUSTRATED with my single status, signed up for TWO online dating websites to ease my frustration and emailed with Justin online.
Mary 2009: Turned 25 without Justin, spent the most wonderful weekend with him when he got back the next day, was blissfully in love the entire month and was engaged on May 31st!

June 2008: Liking my job again, repainting my entryway, decided NOT to go back to college right now, was LOVING taking an oil painting class over the summer, spoke at Ground Level and surrendered Justin back to the Lord completely (with many tears) since we hadn't emailed in a while and I was pretty sure he was never going to talk to me again (and cause the Lord asked me to).
June 2009: Wedding spreadsheets, counting down the days until the wedding, wedding planning, engagement photos and dreaming about the wedding.

July 2008: Met a another guy online, scrubbed my shower clean of black mold with vinegar and ordered new books online about crocheting. Exciting.
July 2009: Wedding stress, premarital counseling, obsessing about having to use plastic tablecloths at the reception and beginning to pack and MOVE my apartment.

August 2008: My sister had back surgery, I bagged a patient for the first time, saw my first T&A bleed, attended The Call in Washington, DC, stopped talking to the other guy after the Lord tells me that "he's not for you" several times, realized (again) that the Lord was bigger than all my failings and worries and took my first vacation on my own in Tyler, TX.
August 2009: I barely blog anything because I am SO consumed with spending every waking minute with Justin, planning the wedding, ordering things, coordinating things and STILL COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS!

September 2008: Repainted and redecorated the spare bedroom, knit my first pair of socks and become more and more unhappy with just how....mundane my life is.
September 2009: I experience the second best day of my life, my wedding day, I go on a honeymoon and we have our first "real" fight being married. We both survive.

October 2008: I go kayaking for free, decide that work REALLY stinks and I HATE it and spend a women's retreat crying on the floor becuase I just can't see how the Lord is ever going to do what He's promised in my life. I feel boxed into my life and VERY "stuck" where I was.
October 2009: I decide that falling asleep and waking up next to my husband is the best thing in the world, we buy a Canon Rebel, I become a Certified Pediatric Nurse and make some really great homemade tomato soup.

November 2008: I catch a vomit in my bare hands for the first time at work, make some cute cupcakes, begin to work on what the Lord spoke to me about at the women's retreat AND I run into Justin at a church function, we recognize each other and he asks for my phone number.
November 2009: A patient falls on me at work and I hurt my back, I get a horrible gastro bug that Justin gets, too, Justin and I realized just how different we are, I plan to kidnap Bethany, and suffer through 11+ days of yucky toncillitus.

December 2008: Justin and I go out twice, including on Christmas Day to see a movie. It is incredibly awkward and I'm not so sure this is going to work out. I dye my hair shockingly BLACK and worry what Justin will think about it.
Decebmer 2009: Justins grandfather spends 10+ day in the ICU and passes away, we spend our first Christmas together, and we both still can't believe how incredibly blessed we are to be married and have each other.

Sigh.
One year makes a WORLD of difference and that fact comforts my little heart.
Jesus is amazing. Praise Him for this amazing life.

So excited to see what will happen in 2010!
Happy New Years!

My Heart is BURSTING!

My heart feels heavy, burdened yet so happy and light and it just feels like bursting.
(YES, it can be all of those at the same time! I'm a woman.)

Christmas was just wonderful. We're still celebrating and I am just overjoyed at how everything has turned out. No stress, the Lord has provided for everything, just as He always does! I was able to get my shopping/wrapping done a week PLUS in advance and got to make homemade goodies for other presents. We have been able to see ALL 4 sides of our family and both of our sets of grandparents in just 4 days. It may not sound like great to some of you, but it's amazing to me!! To see that many people in 4 days and have it not feel stressful! AMAZING!

I just love our families and am so thankful for them.

And the Lord. The main reason why my heart feels like bursting. This Christmas I just wanted to cry at how amazing, good, faithful and SWEET our Father is! Just think! Before the world was even FORMED He knew my little frame, my little body, what my life would be like, the choices I would make, good or bad, and he LOVED ME.

HE. LOVED. ME.
(My eyes are welling up here.)
HE. LOVES. YOU!
(ALL of you!)

He loved us enough to create the Earth, even though He knew Adam and Eve would sin and His wonderful creations would be seperated from Him by sin. He KNEW that the people of the Earth would turn away from Him and to evil and He would have to flood the Earth. He KNEW that the Law, the judges and all His miraculous, saving acts of the Old Testament would not free His people, but merely cleanse them. He KNEW He would have to send His ONLY Son as a baby to a filthy manger and a teenager mother in order to redeem and forgive us once and for all. He KNEW His Son would then have to be killed, crucified and He knew how much it would break His father heart. He KNEW He'd have to sacrifice ONE of His children to save His MILLIONS of other children. He thought it was worth it, but it broke His heart.

He knew, and He decided that we were worth all that trouble, pain and suffering just so He could be close to us, speak to us, hold us, rejoice over us, sing over us, bless us, discipline us and LOVE us.

He wanted to know ME, He wanted to know YOU.
He went above and beyond to save us, know us to speak to us, teach us, just to KNOW us intimately.
He goes above and beyond in our lives DAILY, with his grace, mercy and miracles in each of our lives.

Justin and I celebrated that this year. HIS sweet, forgiving, life-saving and redeeming birth. He loves us.

HE LOVES US!
Amen.

That's one thing that makes my heart burst.

Christmas with the Ebel's

A Sneak Peek

A Sneak Peek of my Christmas Cinnamon Rolls!
Well....the dough at least.
They made up and cooked up fabulously.
You better hope you're getting a pan.

AND just a peek at the message I found this evening in the shower!
Justin is so sweet!
I love you, too baby!

Pre-Christmas Present Wrapping

All of our Christmas presents are bought.
All of our Christmas presents are wrapped.

I mailed out thank you/Christmas cards on Tuesday.

I feel accomplished.

::smile::

Whirlwind

Life always seems to get hectic right as the holidays are approaching. I have no idea why. I always try to plan for the unexpected and schedule in extra free time and grace for myself around this time of year, but it never seems to work. Even this year.

It's really just been a whirlwind for Justin and I these past few weeks. We've both been sick- twice. I have had increasing migraines these last few weeks and had to go back into see my neurologist. I was injured at work. Justin has been increasingly busy at work as the holiday season approaches, as with any church this time of year. We're trying to figure out my work schedule and when we can see all of our families. Plus trying to buy presents. No more than any other American at this time, right? We can all attest though that it's stressful.

For us though, these past two weeks have been stressful. Justin's grandfather went in for open heart surgery about two weeks ago, had multiple complications after surgery and was in the ICU for almost a week and a half. Sadly, Tony passed away on Saturday. So this week has been a blur of funeral arrangements, family flying in from everywhere, the viewings and tomorrow the funeral mass and burial. Tony was a great man whose family loved him very very much. We will all miss him and I will miss not getting the chance to really know him or for our children (to-be) to know him. It's been a hard few days.

Needless to say, I'm excited for Christmas, celebrating Jesus' birth and the fact that He CHOSE to come and live us, and for seeing family BUT I'm really excited for January. I just can't wait to rest.