2017 has ended, and 2018 has started. Oh, time for new resolutions and new lists… I found this in Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV: 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

My kid’s 1st grade teacher always tells him: “tomorrow is a brand new day!”, and guess what? We are in a brand new year! Yes, I’m beyond looking forward to what 2018 will bring, to what God will do in and for us this year. The last 5 years have had losses both personal and material, and we had challenges, and stress and blessings, and joy and sadness, and laughs and tears. During 2017 however, my figure got enhanced, we lost our refrigerator/freezer and all of its contents after doing the weekly shopping, and our HVAC compressor went out in the middle of a freezing winter in Texas! We got another refrigerator/freezer, still waiting on the compressor while using space heaters and wearing three pairs of socks and scarves indoors! 2018 better be the year where the figure goes down though!

Seriously though, what the heck?! When I said I do, I didn’t realize that my life would be like this! Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change anything. I just didn’t quite realize I would be where I am! When 2004 started, I really didn’t have any expectations, I didn’t have a list of things I wanted to accomplish. I just had an email from a guy named Richard saying he wanted to get to know me. I responded, and the rest is history. Before that email, my slate was pretty blank and empty. I just prayed that God would bless me. God has blessed me alright, in more ways that I could ever imagine! A lot of my blessings however, haven’t gotten here without more than a few tears and a lot of work. Still, I wouldn’t have it any other way because it has humbled me, it has made me appreciate what I have been given a lot more than you could ever imagine!

I told you I pray a lot, well, I really do. I prayed for God to bless my marriage, I prayed more than once a day for 6 years for God to bless us with a baby, for the in-vitro to work, for the baby to be a boy, for the baby to make it out of the NICU. I prayed to finish nursing school, then to pass the NCLEX, then for a job. I prayed for God to help us after Richard passed away. I prayed for God to guide us and take care of us. I prayed for God to help us with a transition house, then for our forever home. I prayed for God to help us while selling my homes to hideous revenous famished hyenas. I prayed for God to help us after the hail destroyed my house and car. I prayed for God to help us when the house got flooded. I prayed for God to help us when my bank account got hacked. I prayed for God to keep me healthy and moving after the illegal drunk driver t-boned my SUV. I prayed for God to take us to a church were our lives would be greatly blessed. I prayed for God to provide during our emergencies. I have prayed for God to grant me wisdom and patience to raise my kid in a way that would please Him. I have prayed for God to help me be a good mom and for God to help my son to be a good kid. God has answered my prayers over and over and over.

So we’re still praying, but this time we’re praying more for the opportunity to give and to share, not so much for what we need or want. I’m praying for God to help us find a way to serve Him more, to be a testimony of His grace and mercy. God has kept us afloat, healthy, with a roof over our heads, with food on our table, and a car to take us back and forth. Through the storms we’ve been, we’ve survived because our eyes have been on God, not what’s around us, as terrible our circumstances may be, and they have been terrible sometimes. I know our storms are nothing compared to other people’s storms, I know we have been blessed beyond belief! But this was still our storm, and God has pulled us through it. And it’s just not what has happened since 2004, it’s also what happened before that. God has given me more chances and more blessings than you can think of. Even my kid has had his share in getting first and second chances in a huge way.

For 2018, we have new hopes, new wishes, but we have no expectations. We hope to serve God first and foremost, to be able to dedicate more time to be a testimony of what God has done, to give our time to God and to others. I do hope to get healthier, not just for me but for my kid as well. We hope God will send us a dad, and that mommy will find a gig that pays the bills and then some and it’s so not a 9-5 thing. In the meantime, me and my kid we are happy, we are together, and that’s the most important thing ever!

So, let me close with 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

God bless your 2018!!