This past year has been full of marking things off my bucket list, seeing long-held dreams fulfilled, and realizing hoped-for outcomes. But I have been pleasantly surprised by an awareness of several unacknowledged dreams coming true. The most exciting part of this journey has been the overwhelming sense that my Heavenly Father has brought it about - both the unknown desire and the fulfillment of it. This has produced a wonderful assurance and feeling that He knows me better than I know myself. And with that assurance comes trust and peace. I look forward to 2017 with anticipation and joy! Below are just a few of the desires fulfilled this past year.
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| Visiting the Alamo in February. This may seem a little cliché, but I've wanted to go here for as long as I can remember. |
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| As an added bonus, I got to do it with my sister (and friends) and we also saw Hamilton's Pool (which was added to the bucket list about a week before we went) and...... |
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| ....San Antonio Missions National Park - which turned out to be my favorite! |
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| Getting this in my inbox made my day - and also opened up a whole new avenue of ministry. Big dream realized right here. |
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| In April I went with my team to the Wichita Mountains to hike, fulfilling my rather broad desire to see ALL of my home state at some point in my life. It also provided a great opportunity to get to know my team better before heading overseas. |
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| In May I finished nearly nine months of nannying - a somewhat latent dream. Spending time with these two has been such a blessing and returning to them this fall after taking the summer off was so sweet! |
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I became an Aunt to little Alec Robert in June. Being around children and loving on them has a been a desire
He has placed in my heart for my entire life. And one He constantly fulfills.
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| I got to ride a train. In Europe. Probably an aspiration that became more alluring since watching Narnia years ago. (All images of me in the train are fuzzy, so I'm going with one from the train station.) |
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| My mom read the book Heidi to us when we were pretty young and it was a family favorite. That book sparked a desire to see Switzerland one day. And this year I did. |
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| Noah (the guy in the middle) asked me to accompany him and some friends on an early morning hike (we're talking like 5:00 AM) to catch the sunrise from a mountaintop in Switzerland. I readily agreed, but I admit it was hard to get up the next morning! But as we're hiking and taking pictures I keep feeling like I've ALWAYS wanted to do this. But I'd certainly never put that into thought, much less words. As it turned out, we didn't get to a very good vantage point before the sun was up, and the pictures weren't the best compared with images from other days in Switzerland, and yet, here I was feeling as if this was where I was meant to be - where I'd always wanted to be. This was my biggest realization of an unacknowledged dream in 2016. |
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| History is my favorite subject. Over the years I've read numerous references to the Rhine River in Germany - never dreaming I'd ever see it for myself, and yet here I was! |
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| As earthly things go, my family is the most important thing to me. Returning home is always a highlight of being gone. And having the privlege to sing with them is the best. |
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| I filled a temporary position at OBU for 7 months, which I thought would lead to a permanent place. It didn't. My contract ended on May 31st. A huge blessing and fulfillment of the desire to work there again was granted when I was hired by another department in the middle of August. This time, it was a permanent position. |
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| Being hired back at OBU opened up the door to realizing a BIG dream: to lead a Team from OBU to Ecuador. And it's happening in 5 short months! God worked everything perfectly - from giving me in-country contacts a month before I was even hired back, to getting most of the other details lined out in a span of about 2 weeks. Just in time for me to promote the trip during OBU's missions week in September. Can't WAIT to go back next summer! |
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| The ARK Encounter. We've wanted to see this ever since we saw the scale model at The Creation Museum in 2013. It was amazing. |
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| This was an amazing place: Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. This comes under one of those far-reaching (and sometimes impossible) goals: to see as many National Parks as possible. |
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| Singing in OBU's production of Handel's Messiah at their annual Hanging of the Greens program. I wanted to do this since learning in the Spring that they would be performing Messiah. Wasn't sure whether it would happen since I'm not a student. It did. And it was amazing. (That's me just to the left of the conductor on the front row. Just one of many whited-out faces!) |
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| Perhaps the biggest dream of all: my sister is going to Ecuador with me! She came down to Shawnee the first weekend in December and signed the contract for my team. SO excited to do this trip together!!! |
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| Coming Home: Finding myself away from home more than I'm there has been new for me this year. Being away just makes the times I'm home all that much sweeter. This has become a constantly occurring desire throughout the year, but it was strongest during December. For Christmas this year we celebrated our Scottish heritage with traditional food, gifts, tartan, kilts and more. It was a wonderful time together celebrating our roots. (Here we're wearing paper crowns that come in traditional Christmas Crackers.) |
