A year of remembrance...

When I first started this blog,  I noted that I initially thought about naming the blog, "Remember" and referenced an awesome song, "We Will Remember", which speaks of the importance of remembering all the wonderful works God has done and then worshiping Him for all He is and ever will be.  Remembering His faithfulness builds our faith and draws us into worship.  I wanted this blog to be a journal of God's work in our family and in my heart so that we can look back in remembrance and be filled with faith, inspiration, and praise.   What I did not realize at the time, however, was that the theme for 2011 for me would be remember.

• A running injury has been plaguing me since October 2010.  While I've rested from running and endured lots of physical therapy, I have reflected on how I began running. In January, I wrote this post as a remembrance of how I fell in love with running.  Since writing that post, I have reconnected with several people from my high school cross country and track teams.  In May, I met one of my old teammates in my home town where she did a photo shoot of our family.  Some of her photos now comprise the header for this blog.

• Just before Valentine's Day, my husband and I began making arrangements for our 2nd honeymoon in celebration of our upcoming 10-year wedding anniversary.  Those preparations led me to a time of reflection over how we first met and what an amazing testimony our love story is of God's gracious sovereignty.  I was reminded of the importance of waiting on His perfect timing instead of following after our own desires.  I wrote a 10-part blog series to record those memories, and those posts became some of the most popular posts on this blog to date. Our love story starts here.

• Also in February, my mother celebrated her 70th birthday.  In preparation for her big surprise birthday celebration, I did a lot of reminiscing while compiling a scrapbook of 70 fond memories I have of her for her birthday present.  That period of reflection prompted me to write a series of blog posts which recorded some of the life lessons Mom has taught me by her example.  That series begins with "Lessons From Mom:  They're Gonna Remember This." 

• In April, I reflected on my adoption story as I prepared a talk for the adoption seminar offered at a women's conference in our area.  While preparing and collecting photos from my childhood days for the presentation, I could not help but give glory to God for His protection and sovereignty.  At the foundation of the world, He knew each of us before we were born.  He always knew I would be placed in this loving home, and He even molded me to look just like my adopted parents.  Friends have told me that they know Asian children who were adopted into American homes who eventually grew to look like their adopted parents.  Only God can do that! 

  

  My daughter, Mom, and me looking so much alike!

• In May, my husband and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary. Since we went on a 7-day cruise to the eastern Caribbean for our honeymoon, we chose a 10-day trip including a 7-day exotic cruise around the western Caribbean as our 2nd honeymoon.  During that trip we savored so many sweet memories from our courtship and early marriage years.  Over the past 10 years, my husband has exceeded all the hopes and dreams I had for him back then, and I just can't thank God enough for him.

• In June, my husband traveled to his rural hometown for his 20-year high school reunion where he did some reminiscing of his own.  Meanwhile, I took the kids to the beach to visit my college roommate and her family.  We laughed about our college memories and the stories of how we each met our respective husbands while we were freshman roommates.  We talked about our career aspirations back then.  She is now living her dream as a successful prosecuting attorney who regularly rescues innocent young children from their perpetrators by ensuring that these kids' abusers get long prison sentences.  I've always admired her spunk and passion.  Meanwhile, I'm home with my children having forsaken my former career aspirations for a vocation that is exceedingly more difficult (for me anyway) than the one I aspired to back then.  I wrote about that career change here.

Enjoying the beach while vising college friends

• In October, my patient husband joined me for a fun-filled 20-year high school reunion weekend in my hometown.  So much reflection and remembrance took place that weekend!  Friends I had not seen in over 20-years felt like close acquaintances again.  It was as if no time had passed since high school when we all gathered together that weekend. It sure was fun feeling 18 again for a few days.

• In late October through early November, we took a family trip to Disney World.  The last time we went, our daughter was not quite two years old, so it was fun to watch her enjoy it so much more this time.  Our son got to experience the magic for the first time.  Disney World conjured up lots of childhood memories of family trips for both my husband and me. 

• On the way back from Disney World, we took a five hour detour to visit old friends.  We spent one night at the home of my husband's college roommate.  They remained as roommates throughout their years at the United States Naval Academy but had not had much time to see one another since graduation.  They enjoyed catching up on the past 16 years while I had a blast watching all our kids play together.  They were all kindred spirits who share so much in common as do their fathers.

• As we continued our journey home, we stopped in the beautiful city where I spent the better part of my career to visit old running team / work friends.  The memories that warmed my heart that day were so sweet, and my husband left with several potential job opportunities should my desire to move back completely overtake me.  Thank you, Lord, for such precious friendships.  

• When we returned from our trip, we had just missed the fall color peak for our area.  Yet the leaves on our trees were still so beautiful.   We have been trying to sell our house on/off for the past 3.5 years, and while I have separated myself emotionally from this house, I know I will always miss the gorgeous fall colors in our back yard.

Left

Center

Right

• In November, our kids played in a fall piano recital.  I have really enjoyed watching both children express so much interest in piano as I did at their age. Like me, they aren't thrilled about practicing their assigned pieces but will play fun songs of their own choosing quite often.  At the last minute, the piano teacher asked me to play a duet with our daughter for the recital.  I had not played in a piano recital in over 20.5 years, so this bit of nostalgia made me a tad nervous, especially since I did not have time to practice.   

When December came, we were faced with more major decisions.  This past year of remembrance has influenced our decision-making and has reminded us once again that God is sovereign.  When our plans don't work out as we think they should or as reason says they should, God is still in control.   He is fashioning all things to work according to His perfect plan.  We can't understand His ways, but we must trust Him. How wonderful it is when He chooses to let us see, eventually in retrospect, how all those crazy, frustrating periods of waiting and wondering were an essential part of His perfect plan.

One decision we needed to make before the second semester tuition payment comes due was whether or not to continue sending our daughter to the school she loves so much after this first semester trial. That choice was easy because regardless of academics, she has renewed her passion for learning and is extremely happy there. She is the type of student who needs more social interaction to thrive, and this school's unique educational approach found nowhere else is a perfect fit for her.  I cannot imagine sending her anywhere else.

We also needed to decide what to do about the house.  Do we re-list it at a still lower price even though it was already priced 30% below market value?   Our Christian realtor noted that if it isn't God's will for us to move, then we could price the home at 80% below market value, and it still would not sell.  God is ultimately in control, and we must remain surrendered to His will, not ours.

I said on more than one occasion that what we really needed to help us offset the crazy loss on this house is a relocation package.  My husband briefly looked at jobs in undesirable locations all over the U.S. just in case that might be God's plan to get us out of this house.  In this down economy, surely companies don't offer those types of relocation packages anymore, we reasoned, so he discontinued his search.

We had been wanting all these years to sell our current house so that we could move northwest where we would be closer to church, friends, my husband's workplace, better schools, and my family.  However, this new school our daughter loves is southeast from here.  Moving northwest would put us entirely too far away from this school for her to continue attending.  So, we took the house off the market, so we could refinance at a  lower rate while giving us more time to decide what to do about selling the house.  During the month that our house was off the market, four homes sold in our neighborhood after years of no activity whatsoever.  Hum...

Then in the middle of December, my husband received an attractive job offer from a company located approximately 60 miles east of here, and a phenomenal relocation package was included!  We prayed over this relocation package, ran the numbers, and figured that the move would cut our losses by over 50%.  However, we would need to move to smaller city in the eastern part of the state.  All of a sudden, moving did not seem like such a great idea anymore, and for the first time in years, we felt truly grateful to live here.  The commute would be about 20 miles longer than my husband's current commute, but it should not take much more time to drive due to less traffic congestion in that direction.  Had we already moved northwest, the commute would have been 20-30 minutes further than it is from where we live now.

Did God keep our house from selling so that our kid(s) could attend the one school that is so ideal for our family and so that my husband could take this great career opportunity? It seemed so.

But then....circumstances changed again and again and yet again.  It's all too complex to detail here, but the end result was that we could see numerous benefits from not selling our house and feel very blessed to be where we are.  God's ways are so much higher than our ways.