Why Hello, 2016! I’m delighted to meet you.

This year my word is: grace.

I almost chose this word last year, but I didn’t.

Lucky for me, my best friend did.

(Best friends are great like that. We almost chose the same word without even talking about it.)

It was so wonderful to go through my first full year of motherhood with a confidant who was focused on giving herself, her situations and the people around her grace.

When I explained that it was hard to work on the computer late at night week after week, she encouraged me, “I don’t think you should worry about working on the computer at night, you’ve already put in a 12+ hour day by then.”

Eventually, this conversation helped me consider changing up my work situation to something that fit our new family life better.

There were a dozen other moments from last year when talking with someone who was focused on “grace” was a real gift for me.

3 + 1 = 4

We have a big change coming our way in April. Then, I’ll be the happy, blessed Mama of “two under two”.

Sounds like I might need to give myself {and my growing family} lots of grace in the coming year…yes?

I hope this word is a “breath of fresh air” to us in 2016.

A gentle exhale, rather than a stress held in…

An opportunity to embrace the chaos of “life with littles”, rather than drowning in it…

It will be the perfect word to get us to December in-tact {maybe even with happy hearts and joyful spirits}, when Joslyn will be just over two and the new baby will be just over six months.

To me, six months was a magic age when things finally started “clicking” for Joslyn, John and myself.

Maybe by December the four of us will be “clicking” along, too?

I’m counting on lots of grace to carry us gently on the bumpy newborn road from April to December. 

More grace, please.

Also, this is all happening…

• My best friend, Lucy, delivered her first beautiful baby girl – Claire Elise – yesterday!
• My #2 sister just graduated from college two weeks ago and is joining the family farm.
• My #3 sister will graduate from Cosmetology school in the spring. At only 19, she has to decide what to do next. More school? Or work? More SD? Or, back to Missouri?
• My #4 sister is in middle school. Enough said.
• My mom had her hip replaced in November. Her recovery is going well, but she needs to schedule a knee replacement in 2016 if possible.

Can you see how all of these women who I talk with every week will need some grace, too?

In reality, I don’t just need grace in 2016. We need it all the time, every day. And, thankfully, it is available to us in abundance.

From his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.

John 1:16

 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 2:8-9

Do you have a word picked out for 2016?

What is it?