The Wilderness Isn't So Bad.

Documentation of Milestones:
Aria is now walking and talking! 
Doing her best to repeat words and babble through what feels like real conversations has been a total blast. It blows my mind how quickly it starts happening! Stephen and I have begun really watching our tone of voice and the words we say in front of her because she understands some and repeats all! 

We went through some serious teething episodes and our first high fever. To those who don't know, baby fevers are wicked scary. Thankfully she happened to be going to the doctor for her 12 month check-up on the day the fever hit. That never happens, so I was really grateful for the Lord's providence.  Doc looked at her swollen gums and assured me she wasn't sick. She had woken up that morning just not herself--flushed, fussy, and clingy (not that I minded the extra snuggles at all). She's generally a very happy explorer and she likes to be held but isn't extreme. The fever rose and fell but persisted through the next two days. I caved and gave her a small dose of tylenol. Normally a very good sleeper and content to be in her crib at night, she wanted to be held tight. Aside from the fear it was actually quite lovely for a change =) But once the two top teeth broke through the fever broke as well and she started giggling. It was such a wave of relief for both of us and we all slept great that night. 

We've also discovered Aria is very musical. She picks up beats from anything and starts to rock out to them--Daddy coming down the attic steps, Mommy banging sauce off a spoon on the stove. Her head starts to bob and she cracks the biggest smile. I look forward to seeing how that manifests itself in her life. Will she be a musician? Will she dance? Will she be a poet? Whatever the case may be, we know our little bird is destined for a creative future. 

Speaking of our family's future, onward toward what's been going on in my head lately.

When I taught 1st and 2nd grade sunday school I loved covering the story of the Israelites wandering for years and years in the desert impatiently waiting on the Lord to come through on his promise to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. The lesson would go something like this...

"What if one morning you woke up and your mommy or daddy came into the room and said 'Surprise! We're going to Disney World!' How would you feel?" 

"Now what if your parents then said...'Ok, now you need to trust me on this, but we're going to walk there.' (New York to Orlando) How would that make you feel?"

Then I would throw ice cream into the equation. 

"What if your mommy and daddy told you that they were going to give you an ice cream feast full of all of your favorite flavors and toppings, but they didn't tell you when exactly it was going to happen? Every day they promised they would provide an incredible spread of sundae madness but didn't tell you when. How would you feel?"
"What if after a week it didn't happen yet?" 
"What about a month?"
"What about a year?" 
"What if you became an adult and it still hadn't happened, but your parents continued to promise it would."
"Would you start to grumble and doubt? Would you lose your faith or trust in your parents coming through on their promise?" 

The Israelites are an infuriating group of people. It can be so frustrating reading about their constant rebellion and disobedience while they are being reminded left and right of God's goodness and love towards them. They are freed from the bonds of slavery with miraculous signs and wonders but after a little while of walking they grumble and want to go back. They complain about the lack of food and water, and God opens up the heavens and grants them everything they need. He guides their way with unearthly pillars of fire and cloud, parts the entire red sea so that they can cross on dry land, and yet they still forget all of this and complain that the going is too hard and too long; they doubt that God will fulfil his covenant with them.  

Stephen and I have been convicted so much this past year of how like the Israelites we can be. God has been so good to us and continues to give us gifts we don't deserve and haven't earned and we are so often discontent and impatient. Starting a business from scratch is hard, and the day to day feels like failure too often. But looking back there have been so many times when God has blessed us so obviously. When we thought the money would run out it didn't. When we thought that we weren't reaching people, we got new contacts out of nowhere. When we thought people weren't taking us seriously we would receive a call from someone asking for an interview--free press that we didn't even seek after. Not to mention the love and support of our devoted family and friends. I'd never stop writing if I started listing the countless moments of encouragement and lifting up of our heads our friends and family have given us. But we don't keep those wonderful things in our heads long enough to see how beautiful the journey has been and how exciting the adventure. Our customers are the greatest people in the world. They have become family. And through one of them, we have been given the most incredible opportunity to start the new year.

Our biggest announcement this year is that we are finally moving! I say finally like three years in our apartment is such a long time, but it isn't. Like the Israelites, we just feel we are entitled to something sooner than we are ready to have it. And yet, one day out of the blue a customer of Stephen's asked if we would be interested in taking care of his farmhouse for him...A farmhouse on the wine trail. A farmhouse within 25 minutes of most of Stephen's customers that he currently spends 3 hours of commuting a day for. A farmhouse big enough to raise a family in. A farmhouse we could not even dream of living in on our own for several years, if ever. A farmhouse that is quite literally a gift from heaven.

In Joshua 24:13 God says to the Israelites:
"I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant."

Well, Stephen technically did plant the vineyard in the backyard of this new home of ours, but this verse has spoken to my heart so much this past year. It is so easy to wonder where the heck you're supposed to be and what the heck you're supposed to be doing, and whether or not you are making the right choices for your life, for your family. It should be comforting when God gives us clear indications that he is watching out for us, wants our best, and most of all he wants us to notice that he is very present in all that we are doing here. But, because of our stubbornness, we so easily push away those obvious gifts and we fret over the smallest problems we face thinking they are the total end of the world. We doubt, we lose faith, we despair. Those moments push us into darkness when we just need to focus on the overwhelming light, the miraculous signs, the clear gifts. I am so thankful for so many lessons this past year and for the exciting times ahead. It's always going to be a struggle but what a comfort to know that we have a ceaselessly good and covenantal God who has a plan that continues to surprise me in wonderful ways, "a plan for welfare and not for evil, to give us a future and a hope."

As Christmas approaches, I am just so humbled by all of this and so thankful for this past year. I look forward to what 2017 has in store and pray that I would stop grumbling and doubting and losing faith. It's just so silly, and wastes so much time!

Photo Memories:

• Kailyn and Stephen's Birthday Bash in the Loft. (19, 26)
• Various Selfies, Bath, and playtimes, also that time we found a huge praying mantis on the window
• Our frist LIVC event: Fish & Sips @ the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead. We were by the rays!
• Thanksgiving
• Annual Pilgrimage to CT with the Leopolds to cut down their tree
• Annual Pilgrimage of the Scarnatos to Home Depot to get ours
• Tree trimming and lots of baba drinking (Aria is a huge milky baba girl.) (Our Christmas tree was named Lady Carnegie this year...our grandest yet=)