i only recently realized that not only the year but the whole decade is coming to a close. please tell me i'm not the only one!
while the decade was kind of a bummer on a national scale (9/11, the bush presidency, interminable war, tanking economy), it also marked the beginning of my adult life and some pretty dramatic personal changes.
on the eve of the last decade, i was a 19 year old college student, just beginning to figure out who i was and what i believed. in the summer of 2000, i met jim and two years later we married. we were still babies when we moved to pittsburgh in '02, took first jobs, and learned a little about grace, marriage, and being a grown-up. we fell in love with the city, learned to cook curry, and endured various dramas associated with apartments that rent for $325 a month;)
in the summer of 2005, we moved here to ligonier, trading our third floor walk-up for a big old farmhouse and our bustling neighborhood for a summer camp that is insanely busy three months of the year and a ghost town the other nine. leaving a job i loved directing a youth ministry, i struggled to find my place here. i worked as a waitress, barista, and housing authority caseworker before becoming a mama to dylan in the fall of 2007. twenty-three months later, james joined team paul, and we became what my friend liz refers to as the "family four pack." it's been a busy two years!
it's hard to believe we're coming up on five years here, especially since i really still don't feel that rooted. i think in this new year i need to put myself out there more and be more intentional at pursuing relationships. i dearly love my husband and my kids, but i need more adults and women in my life for sure.
ten years ago, i was a student barely out of high school and my parents' home, and now i'm a wife and mother of two, approaching 30. i wonder what God has in store for the next decade...
Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland. --Isaiah 43:18-19
1 comment:
we're the same age then, you and i? i thought you were a bit younger. :) this is MY year. all my other gfriends are sad adn scared to be 30, but i have this buzz inside. reading your post from the year of yes,i too wept. in fact, i'm getting yes tattooed on my body. b/cs my 30th year will be a yes year. and i'm happy, thrilled about that. i was a 19 year old college student as well, just beginning to deal w/ the issues that would tear my family apart. but now? i'm a "survivor" and have been blessed w/ a new family. Gods Grace is immeasurable and unexpected to say the least.
big hugs to you and your sweet family. i have a new urge to finally blog again.... so maybe you'll see me around more!!!
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