Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Looking Back on 2013

December 31st always has a way of making me reflect, and this year is no different. 2013 has been a whirlwind of a year for us--but a blessed one at that! This time last year, we still lived in Louisville. We were interviewing with a couple of churches back in Arkansas, but we were thinking our timeline to move was more like May or June. Obviously, the Lord had other plans!

In early January, the doctor I worked for fell deathly ill and it was questionable if he would recover (and if he did, would he come back to work?). Since I was the main source of income for our little family, if I wasn't able to work, then we were in deep trouble. After discussing our options and having some serious prayer time, we immediately called our families and explained our situation. They agreed with our line of thinking--either the Lord was going to provide a job for Daniel in the immediate future or we were moving back in with my parents and would continue to look for employment at that time.

Daniel also called both churches to let them know our situation and to see if either one could move up the interview process. We were both praying that the Lord would make our path clear and boy, did He ever! The church in Conway told us they had decided to hire someone else, so that left First Baptist in Fort Smith. They were very willing to work with us and moved up our interview date so we could make things happen faster. Over the next 30 days: I turned in my 2-weeks notice to my job, we interviewed and they hired us, we found a house in Fort Smith to rent, we found a moving company and they packed up our entire apartment in a day, and we made the 600 mile trek back home! We officially moved in to Fort Smith on February 17th.

Since then, Daniel has graduated with his Master's degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he is fitting in beautifully well at the church and we could not feel more blessed with his ministry work there, I (still) could not find a job in my field so I am currently a nanny to an adorable 10 month old little girl, my sister got engaged and we have been having a blast planning her wedding for next May in Florida, and we have started looking for a house to buy! Whew!

I feel like the blessings have just continued to pour on--and to be honest, I am a little overwhelmed and humbled by it all. While we miss our friends in Louisville, it is such a dream to be only 2 hours away from our families and especially to be back in the state of Arkansas! The Lord is so good and His mercies are new every morning. It sure is going to be fun to see what He has in store for our family in 2014!