It's that time of year once again. As it's crazy to look back and see how the entire year just seemed to fly by.
Hopefully everyone is having good memories - even though I know that years tend to include both growth and loss. Its also interesting to look back and realize how much of the growth may have actually come in result of getting over a loss.
One of our losses this year was actually our church. I didn't go into it earlier because I was too emotional, but we were removed from the worship team due to our relationship with our son's God parents. But the God-daughter we have and the relationship we have with her parents is such a treasure that I can't even begin to explain.
On December 22 - Anaia Noelle was born and she is the sweetest most precious baby ever. My heart is so full. And her parents are so blessed to have her as their rainbow baby. I will say at first it felt like we lost a lot when the turn of events happened - but now - I would say that we gained something much greater, meaningful & true. Yes, we were disappointed in how everything played out - but we know that what we stand for and how we conducted ourselves was the right thing to do.
I pray that the people who continue to be affected by the actions of those who aren't doing things right be protected and that they eventually see the truth. That when they see the truth they have the strength and guidance to do what is right in spite of what things may look like.
With this change for us we've actually done a lot of hunting for new churches. My heart is still looking for a new church home - not only for me but for Seth as well. He had so many relationships that we built for him at our old church and I want to make sure I don't spend and extra time investing into a relationship that he's going to lose. That's what truly broke my heart. I literally now look at everything with the eyes of what am I teaching my son? That means even with my emotions and actions I have now taken a second thought to everything. It's pretty exhausting. Basic common sense things are easy - its when there are things that bother me that make this transition of thought process difficult. Either way - I know as a mom this is just the new norm and how things are going to be from now on. That's how he will always learn.
Now I'm really thinking about how do I teach him about Christmas. Last year it wasn't that big of a deal because there isn't much that I believe he was comprehending in terms of the why of things yet. Now as he gets older I want to make sure he isn't confused about the real reason for this season. There will be people talking about Santa and presents - I can't ignore that. So I have to make sure that he knows about those and what it has to do with the real reason for Christmas.
See - Christmas is the time of year where God gave us the greatest gift of all - his son. So we too at this time of year give our loved ones gifts. But we must remember - God gave us a GREAT gift - something so SPECIAL and SPECIFIC just for us. So in turn - when we are giving gifts to our loved ones - we should make them special and specific too! Gifts that aren't only materialistic but rather gifts that are intangible as well.
Hopefully as the years go by we will be able to share some examples of how we have done this. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and enjoys this time of year with their families.
