Happy Birthday Leewards!

I didn't get to write on the actual birthday of Leewards (November 24), but I guess a 1 year and 2 day celebration is close enough.

It's funny because I never actually intended to start a blog whenever I wrote my first post. It was a part of a school project, a hypothetical webpage that I created for a web design class. I started a blog with the intention of never telling anyone to see if I really liked it and maybe, some time in the distant future, I would actually write in it. Two days later, I was shocked to see that I was a feature blog post of The LaunchPad (Pastor Jeff Leake's blog) and I realized that like it or not, I was going to have to give this blogging thing a shot.

I liked it. I liked it a lot.

And in classic God form, He used that simple little instrument to introduce me to new friends (and new "more than friends") and to capture one of the most unbelievable years of my life thus far.

Last Thanksgiving, I wrote about my deep sadness as all my family left and I felt so alone. It was a really significant moment of me pressing past my feelings and the "reality" of my situation at the time and to choose to believe the Truth of God's promises and the hope He extends through them. This Thanksgiving, my fiance and I joined my family in Florida for an amazing family vacation. Ashley and Nate cooked and Brad's parents even traveled up from St. Pete's Beach to celebrate with us. If someone had told me last Thanksgiving what my next Thanksgiving would look like, I'm pretty sure I would have had the same reaction as Sarah in Genesis and just would have laughed my head off.

I am truly humbled and thankful beyond words for all that God has done, truly more than any one of us could have asked or imagined. My prayer is that God would continue to expand His Kingdom and plans, using my life and story as a testimony of hope of the incredible plans of our Father that He has in store for each one of us.