Goodbye 2010...

The last three days we've been chillin out Alabama way ( so only about thirty minutes from home) meaning I did not have ANY INTERNET ACCESS for three days. OR cell phone reception. Anyway, that is why this post is late-but since we're still in the single digits of 2011 I feel like we're not too late to recap Abigail's Day 2010. WOO!

So, 2010 started out in bed. Not in a cool sort of way, but in an "I have morning sickness at night" kind of a way. Thus Brett and I rung in the new year going to bed waaaay early. So, yes,  in January I announced I was preggers."The Big Reveal" As far as blog posts go...that's kind of a big one. Probably only topped by my 'I'm engaged' blog post...or...hey, maybe the BIRTH of my child, but that comes later....I also started a little part time job working for the Navigators, which helped considerably with filling up my time!

One of the big things that happened in February is that God worked a major Army Miracle and gave Brett a Job at Fort Benning -meaning we'd be sticking around for several more years, God also worked it so that Brett would be around for the birth of our "Hippopotamus"-which was, well, REALLY A BIG DEAL. While this was a hug relief I was still struggling quite a bit with our life in Georgia and still missed Washington terribly. It probably didn't help that I was still a sick little pregnant girl.

In March we found out that our "Hippopotamus" was going to be a boy! WOO! I also continued to struggle with the "new" life I was living and I wrote a couple of blog posts to help me through it. I think this "Life Lesson" is my particular favorite.

In April we were SO CLOSE to moving out of The Woods House and Finally getting our own belongings back and finally  not living in the middle of NO WHERE, that I could taste it.  And so God saw fit to make me wait longer and He put us on the waiting list for housing. Now that we live on post and I see people moving in and out almost daily, I know that it was DEFINITELY a God thing! There is NEVER a waiting list!! So, God used my impatience to teach me more lessons. My favorite was documented here: "Head on down to your nearest desert" . The other cool thing that happened in April was my niece Kilsyth was born...but I didn't announce it on my blog until...

 May. The End of April and into May was really a great time. In some ways it was the transition out of a very difficult time into a definite time of blessing. I reached my Third Trimester. We have moved into our new home which I looooooved. We were entering into the crazy-cool busy Summer Bible Study season and we were seeing a lot more Fruit from ministry. And I shared a hilarious story about the guy who was living with us at the time and the woes of moving into a new house: "Midnight in the house of Good and Evil"

At the end of May and into the first week of June, I shared about the AMAZING baby showers that were thrown for me in Texas, we got to see Family-including my new niece and Brett's oldest brothers family. It was wonderful spending time with all of them. I posted a mostly picture post all about it, "We are blessed." The trip to Texas just ran straight into a very crazy busy season of parties, VBS, outreach events, and one last trip for Brett and I to Atlanta before having Ransom.

In July my wonderful friend Tabitha came for a visit, Anna, Ryan and Kilsyth came for a visit, Brett and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary and somewhere in there I continued to get more and more giant ( our air conditioner was working OVER TIME) and started to freak out about having a baby. But even with the freak outs, God was faithful and I shared a little of His comfort to me here, "A little memory.."

And then there was August....The month when Ransom was born. And my life and my blog changed forever. You should probably just go read all the blog posts from August, most of them are pictures some of them are the account of Ransom's birth which are also linked in my "Favorites" Section. But August also brought Brett leaving for Ranger School which was also another very important event of 2010... From the beginning we felt the Lord's Help, which I wrote about in, "A Preemptive Reminder"

So by September we were really in throws of Ranger School and Baby Rearing. It was seriously a month of clinging to the Lord as I literally took a roller coaster of emotions from day to day. The month was FULL of examples of how He provided for both Brett and I, and looking back over this month's posts I am still AMAZED by His goodness to us! I guess one of the best examples of the month is this post: Perspective

 October can only be described as an ADJUSTMENT. Brett was still in Ranger School and I was still doing my best to raise Ransom by myself ( with the help of my many many house guests!). But I was still struggling with being a mom and also doing all the things that I USE TO DO before I became a mom. I think October and November where definitely the hardest months on Ransom and I both when it comes to how we lived our lives. But one example of me trying to sort it all out ( and usually failing) was this post: Units of Time. 

And then there was November...November I continued to slowly struggle out of my funk of trying to take Ransom out into public and it failing miserably, plus dealing with a crazy case of Acid Reflux ( on his part)...but even in the midst of another difficult month, my family blessed me with a wonderful "life line" birthday present. And my sister came to stay with Ransom so Brett and I could get away...Vitamins for Everyone! reflects maybe just HOW desperate I was for that break.

In December I didn't write many posts, but this time it wasn't because things were hard, but more because they were BUSY! We threw two holiday parties and took a two week trip to Texas during December and Ransom and I both seemed to slowly feel our way out into "public" and survive. What a relief as a parent! I guess it was fitting then that I wrote about God's perfect timing this month, in one of my favorite blog posts of the year: "On that very day"

And so we ended 2010. Overall, it was a hard year-at first it was hard because of a much longer transition into Fort Benning that was probably made harder because of pregnancy hormones and the added bonus of living in someone else's house for 5 months. And then it was hard yet again with the trials of Single Parent-dom and Ranger School combined which was followed by a weird adjustment to parenting that I had not really foreseen but that most definitely happened. Eh. I guess I probably have many more of those adjustments to look forward to, huh?! ;-)
Anyway, while it was hard Brett and I were tremendously blessed. We got to see a lot of growth Spiritually in our own lives ( nothing like having to take up your cross daily and live where you don't want to live to make you grow! hehe!) as well in the lives of those we were getting to ministry to as a part of the Navigators Single Soldiers Ministry. Brett was able to conquer the long time hurdle of Ranger School in one fell swoop that was made possible by the many prayers of the Saints. It was TRULY a Faith builder for us both! And then, of course, we became parents to Ransom this year. Something that is so mindblowing that its really hard to muster the appropriate words to describe what it has meant to us. So, I suppose this just goes to show that the things that are truly WORTH IT, there is mostly likely going to be some sharpening and refining that is going to hurt ( for example: 36 hours of birth labor) and  as the years go by I realize that some of the hardest years have brought the most joy.

May we Live Harder in 2011.