2013. Hope.

Happy New Year!!

We had a wonderful day just staying home with the family today. I feel like I still have so much of life to catch up on from 2012, but maybe I'll just have to let that go and move on into the new year!! :)

So this year, I have goals that I'd like to achieve, but more than that, I have one word that I want to focus on for the year. My word for 2013 is hope.

2012 was a wonderful year for our family. We had a lot of changes in all of our lives and while that is amazing, it was also very, very hard. We, adoptive families, we don't talk about the hard very much. We try to paint this beautiful picture of adoption and how it's all glorious and beautiful. And while that is true, it's very messy. It comes with a price and a lot of hurt. Adoption comes out of pain. There is beauty in that pain, but it takes a long time to peel away the layers to get there. Our layers are nowhere near done being peeled.

We have a lot of work to do in 2013 and I have lots of hope. I have so much hope for our family and for the ways that we will grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus this year. 2012 was just kind of weird for me.

I have lots of hope for this year. Hope for a fresh start. Hope for new beginnings. Hope for redemption in my kids' lives. Hope for more love and more giving and more joy. So much hope for 2013. Thank You, Jesus, for being our Ultimate Hope.

I'm excited for 2013! Let's do this!

Hope.

"But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." -Romans 8:25

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." -Romans 12:12

"That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe." -1 Timothy 4:10

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."  -Hebrews 11:1

And my personal favorite:
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." -Romans 15:13