Best of 2020
Every year, I pray for the Lord to give me a word to focus on. My word for 2020 was PREPARATION. At first, I was questioning that word because it didn't seem to fit, but I kept thinking about it and asking God what He wanted me to learn and "prepare" for.
Here we are, a year later, and the word "prepare" was the perfect word to describe this year. God always knows what He's doing as I prepared for a baby, a job, homeschooling for a season, healing and growing, and our dream as a married couple changing directions.
I shared on Instagram how I want to end 2020 well and look back on it with gratitude. Even though there were so many frustrations and so much anger and pain and confusion and heartbreak, I can still look at 2020 and see God's hand at work. 2020 was not a mistake and it was no surprise to God. I see that He was in every moment of every day, of every week and every month, and I want to look back and see what He DID rather than focus on all the things I think He didn’t do.
January - We took a trip to Disney World with my parents! So thankful we got this trip in right before all the mask mandates and shut downs. From the resort to the park to the kids' attitudes, it was the best vacation. We even celebrated Nate's 2nd birthday there.
February - Andrew's schedule got a little crazy....and then we all got horribly sick. Looking back, I'm wondering if it was COVID. But on the bright side, we got a major sickness out of our way and ended up healthy the rest of the year. In February, Wesley also finished up his first basketball season and discovered that it's his favorite sport.
March - We found out we were quarantined, but we also found out we were pregnant with our fourth baby!!! A complete miracle and wonderful distraction from the crazy world.
April - We celebrated Easter in a different way since we couldn’t go to church. The same week as Easter, we found baby bunnies born in our backyard. We checked on them daily and watched them grow. Then, on Easter morning, they hopped away...a fun natural reflection of Christ's resurrection - gone on Sunday morning.
May - I was feeling so sick but thankfully we had a lot of family time. We celebrated Reid’s 4th birthday, we took a beach trip, announced that we were having a baby, went camping in our backyard, AND found out baby #4 would be a GIRL!!!!
June - We started getting really creative with things to do around the house and games to play outside. Thankfully, my parents drove out to spend time with us and break up our daily routines. The rest of the month was a blur, haha :)
July - We celebrated our great country and Andrew finishing his intern year of residency! We decided to homeschool and found out that I had no sign of disease after my year neck scan!!!!!!
August - We celebrated Wesley‘s 6th birthday and started our homeschooling journey. I also started to plan the nursery and buy cute, girly things!
September - We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary and went on a beautiful beach babymoon! My parents came to visit and we had another family beach vacation. I got professional business photos done because of what was to come (more on that later) and my photographer was the best because she hid my 7 months pregnant belly! (All the main photos you see on my website were taken while pregnant!) We also got our maternity photos done!
October - God opened doors and the boys started at a private Christian school! Business took off and I continued to work on my other projects. My mom came to visit for my baby shower and we all dressed up for Halloween fun and trick-or-treating!
November - My favorite month! We celebrated my 32nd birthday, we had the best Thanksgiving, and the most wonderful day on the 28th....our sweet Madison was born. Thank you, Jesus!
December - Another month of celebrating! We celebrated Andrew's birthday, Christ's birth, my parents visited, we had a wonderful Christmas, and Andrew had the most time off that I think he's ever had in our entire marriage. Maddie turned one month old, we made dreams for 2021 [all open-handed, of course haha :)], and we received more great news for a big announcement that I'll be sharing soon!!!!
Looking back on the year, there was a lot of celebration. A lot of love, excitement, fun, and family time. But, just like many of you, it was also a year of difficulties and loss in many ways.
I understand that life is filled with both the glorious snippets and devastating circumstances sprinkled throughout a calendar year. But I challenge you to look back and find the GOOD of what God did each month. Maybe it was that you had some time to yourself to really invest in your passions. Or maybe you had a really bad month but it was the same month that you caught up with a lifelong friend over Zoom. Maybe you bonded with your kids or had a baby in the midst of COVID. Whatever the case, I want to end 2020 with a heart of thankfulness and always see what God did rather than what I think was missing.
xoxoxo
Nicole
