Wow, what a year! 2012 was an amazing year for us, and one we will always remember. We have loved watching our girls grow this year. Lily started to Kindergarten and turned 6 in October. I love watching her learn (she's starting to read now!) and grow in her love of the Lord. She is so smart and creative; I'm always amazed at her. Mia turned 4 in November and returned to Bethany Church's Parent Morning Out program two mornings a week. She loves it there. Mia is such a happy and precious child. She makes me laugh every single day. Both girls started to play soccer this year which was fun to watch. I can't get over how much I love these girls!
We were fortunate to take several memorable vacations. We started out the year celebrating our 10 year anniversary on a cruise to Belize and Cozumel; cruises are always a blast! We took two trips that we have been dreaming about for awhile now. In August, Ryan and I went to California (Mendocino, Napa Valley and Sausalito) with my parents. In November, the four of us took Liz on an early 60th birthday trip to Disney World and on the Disney cruise. We also had a great time visiting Ryan's family in Chicago this summer; that was the girls' first plane ride, and they loved it! Our family took two annual beach trips as well; the first with my family in July to New Smyrna Beach and the second with our best friends to Gulf Shores in October. Ryan took three mission trips to Alaska which he always loves. He has developed some great friendships and ministries there, so we are always grateful for the opportunity for him to return there. We love to travel, so this was definitely a big year for us!
In addition to the girls and our travels, we were pretty busy at work and other cool opportunities. Ryan has become very involved with the global missions department of our church. He helped direct one of their Sunday School classes each week, and he takes part in their weekly prayer meetings. In March, I joined the Board of Lily's school which I have loved. The Lord's hands have been all over this school recently, and it's been fascinating to watch "from the inside." Truly amazing things are going on at that school! Additionally, I volunteer each week to help with the financial administration of the school. I love getting to be at the school and see the kids each week; it's so much fun! Other than that, I also volunteer for the Care Committee at our church. This committee helps our church meet the financial needs of those in our community. We may assist with rent or mortgage payments, utilities or health care costs for those within and without our church. We also offer financial guidance and suggestions to help these individuals or families get back on track. All of these are very rewarding tasks for us.
This has been such an amazing year for us, and we can't wait to see what God has in store for our family in 2013. We are both very excited that Ryan will begin to seminary in late February. We aren't exactly sure where this will lead him or our family, but we're looking forward to finding out in the future! We have lots of goals set before us for the coming year. I'm sure we'll keep you updated through this blog on how that is going. We hope you and your family are doing well also. May God bless you in 2013!
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