January: We brought the New Year in with some friends from the Baptist church. Jayla started a new school (the Montessori that she is currently attending) and she finally stopped nursing. I started half-heartedly taking classes at a local university.
February: I interviewed for the Ph.D. program that I am currently in. I was offered admission along with a fellowship and an assistantship that would allow me to quit my job and go to school full-time. My dad had triple-bypass surgery and I turned 28. We made two trips to Mississippi that month.
March: I left Jayla overnight for the first time. I traveled to Phoenix for 3 days to complete a certification class. I also officially accepted the fellowship and assistantship offers with my husband’s full support. Consequently, I started counting the days until I could quit my job.
April: We started visiting a Lutheran church. We had been attending a Baptist church for the past 4 years, even though neither of us was raised Baptist. My husband was raised Lutheran and could not reconcile some of the doctrinal differences. So, we went to check out a Lutheran church near our house since our responsibilities as small group leaders at the Baptist church would be on hiatus until the beginning of the summer.
May: We started taking a Lutheran 101 class which required us to be in attendance at the Lutheran church each Sunday for 13 weeks. We committed to it so that I could learn more about the Lutheran church since I was not as familiar with it as my husband. At the end of the 13 weeks, we would make a decision on joining the church. We also traveled to Mississippi for my sister’s MBA graduation.
June: My sister moved in with us after her graduation. My husband turned 30 and we left Jayla with my parents for the first time. We took a quick trip (4 days) down to Galveston while they watched her at our house. We were only 45 minutes away from home but, it was nice to get away together for the first time since we’ve had Jayla.
July: We traveled to Atlanta for my husband’s family reunion. My parents came to visit for a weekend to witness my baptism at the Lutheran church.
August: I visited girlfriends in Nashville for a weekend (three times away from Jayla this year!). Our little family officially joined the Lutheran church that we’d been visiting. I finally quit my job. Jayla turned 2 and all of her grandparents came to town for her birthday party. I started school full-time. We started taking Financial Peace University (FPU) through the Lutheran church.
September: We celebrated 6 years of marriage by traveling to Mississippi for my family reunion. My husband was thrilled . We also made a trip to St. Louis for my husband’s college scholarship reunion (they were celebrating 20 years of the scholarship award’s existence). In between, I was trying to adjust to being a student again and FPU was in full swing.
October: We flew to North Carolina for a wedding that I was in. Otherwise, I was intently focused on school and trying to recover from so much traveling. Jayla dressed as a bumblebee for Halloween and we took her and her best friend to a city park to a sponsored trick-or-treat trail.
November: I was still pretty focused on school. FPU finally ended. We spent Thanksgiving in Mississippi with my family.
December: I finished my first semester in this program with all A’s. With me done with school, we got to enjoy a bit more quality time as a family. We also drove to St. Louis to spend the week of Christmas with my husband’s family and friends.
There were a lot of changes with my employment, the church/denomination switch and Jayla’s development, of course. But, looking back over the year, it is so clear that God was faithful and we were blessed. I’m looking forward to big things in 2008...
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