In a Word

This past year has been a bit crazy. In the year 2011 I took nine trips and we had five visits from out-of-town family and friends. In the beginning of the year, I decided to take a class at E's school which led to me being gone two nights a week, in addition to our weekly youth group commitment. I felt like we were never home. Then in April we got approached with the idea to spend the summer in Italy. We had a frantic few weeks of pulling things together to be gone, and we left. After our vacation to New York and time in Italy, (including 5 weeks apart), we had out-of-town houseguests for most of the rest of August. Then school started back up, including me taking another class, E taking German in addition to his full-time class load, and me traveling for almost the entire month of October. In addition to all that we've had family and church related things going on.  Looking back on the year (it hardly seems like I should already be doing that!) we feel incredibly blessed to have gotten through it as smoothly as we have. But it did feel a bit crazy.

The word I would like to use to be able to describe this upcoming year is difficult for me, because right now it feels very unknown. E and I have finally been faced with the reality that once he is done with school in the spring we have no idea where we're going or what we're doing. He could be called to a church right away, or [likely], it will take a while, and we'll have to have a plan for the meantime. It's hard for me to imagine us leaving this area and our lives here, but at the same time I'm eager to see what's next for us. So, at this time next year, I'm hoping to be able to describe 2012 as: at peace. It could very well be that our future will be as unknown one year from now as it is today, but I'm praying for a peace to get through the uncertainty of what our lives will hold over the next year.

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Along with other friends, I'm participating in #WEverb11, organized by Kim. I'm excited to reflect on this last year and look forward to what's ahead. We'd love to have you join us!

The first prompt is: Choose one word. Encapsulate the year 2011 in one word. Explain why. Imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2012 for you