full

so on monday i turned one year older... and then spent the whole week celebrating (is what it seems!)

honestly, i don't feel different, except that now i have to say 24 instead of 23 when people ask. no big deal really.

i decided that i will write down twenty four things to mark the beginning of the next year.
things i've learned, things i'm thankful for etc. so here goes:

1. i have learned that it is so fun to be a wife
2. re-realized that family is the most important thing to me (after God of course)
3. this year was one of the best and the worst ever. i'm thankful God gave me some of my happiest moments in the midst of the deepest grief
4. i am thankful, every day that a year ago i felt my little nephew kicking inside leah's tummy, that i could actually FEEL him moving. he was so active in there.
5. realized it was time to take a break from some commitments and just take time
6. i learned that working 8-4 mon-fri makes you feel like a grown up
7. thankful for a loving husband, who warms up my heat pack for my cold little feet every night before bed
8. this year i went to cuba twice, the first time i was a girlfriend and then a fiance. the second time, a wife!
9. i started a new tradition... having a sleepover in my own house... in the living room!
10. this year i had 4 different jobs: spring clean up with paneless, cleaning with molly maid, retail with hallmark and finally customer service rep with kindred productions
11. this year i learned that if i can't trust in God, i'm lost
12. i got a tattoo
13. since my last birthday i have one more brother, one more sister, one more mom and one more dad! what a year!
14. this year i learned to like bran flakes for breakfast!
15. i'm thankful for my first home.
16. i watched the Office for the first time
17. i am thankful for my new caregoup, and how good it is to spend time getting to know them
18. i cried more than any other year
19. i learned to pray more genuinely
20. i watched many sunsets... and marveled at how the sky actually turns into a giant rainbow.
21. i actually started really liking country music... and know a lot of it by heart already!
22. our little family of 2 has grown by 1. michael and i have a foster child, from burkina, where michael grew up! his name is bouriema kiema and he's 10.
23. i now own the whole series of friends and the oc.... and we like to watch them and quote them!
24. i had the fullest year of my life. full of good. full of bad. full of such joy. full of such pain. full full full. (both of my sisters wrote something like this in my birthday cards. this was my year).

there is much more, but that is all for now.

ps. i cut my hair!