Reflections on the Last day of 2010

I cannot believe that 2010 is over in just a few hours! Strangely enough, it seems like it flew by! I've heard that once you have a child, you can really SEE time flying by in how they grow and change almost daily sometimes. We were totally blessed this year in so many ways - one of them being that this was our first full calendar year with our precious gift from God, Lucy Elizabeth!

January:
-Lucy's first birthday. Celebrated with friends and spent the actual day of her birthday having fun in a wadi (water-filled, although sometimes dry, valley)

February:
-Blessed with an amazing trip back to AL for a big celebration at Shades. And even though Lucy and Brad were sick almost the whole trip, it was still amazing to see our family and friends!

March:
-Celebrated 7 years with my best friend and soul mate, Brad.

April:
-Made our first visit out to a real village in our country. It was a wonderful time and a long, hot day.
-Trip up to one of the highest mountains in our country. What an amazingly beautiful creation God has made!

May:
-Brad and Lucy showered me with love and gifts for Mother's Day.
-I got to be a part of my dear friend's baby's birth! Well, I was in the room about 30 min afterwards! It was such a blessing to be included in this family event. She told me that she thinks of me as a sister. Oh, how I long to really be her Sister in Christ!

June:
-Vacation to Tanzania! We got to see almost all of our friends that live in TZ. It was so wonderful to see them again and for them to see Lucy! We stayed with some of our best friends and enjoyed games and good food and amazing fellowship! I got to visit my old school, HOPAC, and see lots of my former students. Brad visited an orphanage we used to visit. We met our Compassion son, Abdul, and got to spend the day with him and meet his family! WOW! And we got to spend several days in Zanzibar, our favorite place on earth!
-Brad and I both crossed over the hump into the 30s!

July:
-Hot. Hot. Hot. The blessing of July is that we made it though! It was a long month. Me and Lucy spent all day, almost every day inside our apartment. I tried my hardest not to rush our packing and moving that I knew were coming in August. All of our friends in our city were out of the country for the month. It was long. But God is good! And we were blessed throughout the month!

August:
-During the month of Ramadhan, we were blessed to be able to have Iftar (break the fast meal) with several of our friends multiple times. It was an amazing "end" to our time in our former city and we got lots of quality time with those families. It was a true blessing!

September:
-We finally moved to our new, current village-like town! It was an easy move and we finally got all settled in. We started language school and Lucy started nursery school. The next chapter in our lives started and seemed to be off to a great start!
-We spent a holiday with our friends in our former city. Again, blessed to be a part of their family celebrations.

October:
-This month we really got closer with our classmates. It's amazing how God brought our group together. We went to the park several times and had picnics and visited a new wadi!
-Blessed by new friends and new routines!
-Found out my MOM is coming to visit!!!

November:
-We were invited to a wedding in our current town of one of our teachers. It was wonderful for Brad and Lucy to experience their first wedding. It was LOUD and there was a lot of good food!
-We had our own GOOD FOOD during our Thanksgiving feast with our American friends. Wow. We outdid ourselves this year with the yumminess!
-We spent another holiday with our friends back in our former city. Yummy food abounded this month!

December:
-New nursery school for Lucy! It's amazing and she loves it there! It's closer to our school and we have complete and total trust in Lucy's teachers!
-Christmas party and celebrations! We are blessed with amazing friends here that are becoming like family!
-I went back to our former city for an engagement party for one of my good friends. It was so fun and I had a great time!
-I gave Christmas presents to my 2 closest local friends - Redeeming Love in Arabic! Both were very excited to receive the book and seemed eager to start reading. I gave the Christmas story and was able to share some with both of them. It's always a blessing to tell others about Jesus!
-JESUS! Of course, he's been there all year, every moment...but this season of celebrating Him and His birth is an amazing blessing every year!

Merry Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year! Welcome 2011!