I didn't stay up to watch the new year come in. I went to bed around 11 and went immediately to sleep. I figured it would get here even if I didn't watch the ball drop. And it did.
2012. Wow, I can't believe it. It just seems like it was 2000. Joe and I did stay up that night. I put our camera on delay and it snapped our picture with our party hats on and blowing our little paper horns. That was before we drank our sparkling grape juice!
Twelve years has gone by since then. What were we doing during all that time? 365 x 12 is 4,380 days. Well, without dragging out my calendars and journals to pin it down, I'll just try to think of some of the highlights in my life.
Granddaughter Jamie was 17, her brother Jase - almost 12. Emily would have been 6, Kensley 2. My stepdad was still alive and I believe pre-cancer and I was working in Lincoln Co. Our son Jeremy was out of the Navy and single. I had just had my 51st birthday. (That sounds so young, now.)
During these past 12 years we have been through illness, accidents with broken bones and bodies. Our little family saw 2 marriages and 5 new babies. But we also experienced the pain of abuse and divorce. There has been sadness. So sad and shocked I cried as I went to sleep and awoke to disbelief and more tears.
Pain and sadness brought me to my knees in prayer a lot. Isn't it strange when we need God most we talk to Him daily, sometimes hourly, but as things get better we tend to put other things ahead of Him?
I've been to funerals of beloved friends and precious family. My great niece and her husband buried a 6 month old baby girl. That is hard, folks. It's hard when you bury your dad or your mom. It's hard when you bring the eulogy of a best friend or hold on to a lifetime classmate whose child is laying in a casket. Each death has caused me to love the friends I have and cherish family more. But I have also been to happy marriages and witnessed as premature babies lived and thrived.
We've opened our home to those in need for however long they needed to be here and we were glad we could help. (We've laughed and said we are running a half-way house for those in need.) We learned about the court system and Cabinet for Families that we only knew about prior from watching TV or reporting such (as nurses are deemed by law to do.) We began to think we might learn what the inside of prison life was like. But thankfully that is behind us, but it gave me a new look at people in prison and those whose poor choices bring them pain and consequences.
You are likely thinking that my life sounds a lot like yours. Maybe you've gone through worse. You probably have. The point is we all are pretty much the same and we each have our own story. Our trials may differ slightly but they are still trials.
My prayer for the coming 365 days is that we would not see death, illness and anything that makes us sad. I pray we all have enough money and a job and will be happy and filled with hope. Will it happen? In all probability for many of us the answer is no. But we can ask ourselves this: what will we turn to when things go wrong, when life hands us adversity or the sorrow of death? Will we blame or accept? Will we curse or praise? Will we grow closer to God or let it drive us away from Him? Our answers are what makes our stories different.
Before we can turn around we will be asking where 2012 went. Let's be good and faithful servants to the One who holds us in His hands.
Be very blessed my friends.
Shirley
