They are saying that this is the nicest December for snowfall in the high country in quite a few years. Ryan was eager to get out to the mountains, so very early this morning he and the big girls headed out to Vail. They will do ski school to refresh their skills, and afterwards Ryan is looking forward to doing a few runs with them. They are always eager to show Daddy what they have learned.
I am staying in town this time to work on Christmas projects. I reminded them to take in the majesty around them and enjoy the glory of God’s creation since I wouldn’t be with them to ohh and ahh like I always do. I am, however, looking forward to a quiet (read: no carpool, no gymnastics, no getting-people-where-they- need-to-go) day with the babies.
Last year we were in Breckenridge on this day. I sat in the lodge in a state of stunned excitement/confusion over the new revelation that my stomach flu wasn’t the flu, but I was in fact pregnant. What a huge shock since we were sure that door was closed to us. Also, after “waiting” for more than a year, we were expecting a referral any day for child #3 from Ethiopia. Boy, what did God have planned for us? Well, 2010 has been quite a year! It has been a good, very, very good year.
It hasn’t, however, been a year of much quiet or sleep. In fact, it has been exhausting and overwhelming a lot of the time. I will say, though, that it has it has been a season where I have known that God is with me and that I am not doing this on my own strength. Ryan’s dad summed it up perfectly when he recently said that some of our biggest blessings also bring us our biggest challenges. I often think of the poem, “Footprints in the Sand” and that is how I picture this season of my life. So while we have been at times “a walking disaster” as Ryan calls it, I have been filled with a peace and a joy for taking care of those whom God has given to me.
My big kids know that when they hear me humming the theme song to Ringling Brothers Barnun and Bailey Circus that I am feeling the effects of our craziness. “Doot-doot-doodle-doodle-doot-doot-doodle. Doot….”