My word that I chose for 2020 was SAVOR. Little did I dream how much of my year was going to be able to live that word out so literally!

From so much time at home and so many things cancelled, to so much time spent rocking and holding and feeding babies, to so much unexpected family time, this year was the perfect year to choose to savor the gifts right in front of me.

Our year looked very different in so many ways — and yes, there was loss and hard things — but I look back and see so much beauty, so much growth, and so much to be grateful for!

In this last podcast for 2020, Jesse and I shared 10 Things We Learned in 2020. Here was our list (I know there are more things we could add, but this is what came to mind as we reflected on the year):

1. God Gives Grace for the Present Not the Future — If we had known what 2020 would hold, we probably would have felt overwhelmed by it. But, as we learned, God doesn’t give you grace for the future, He gives grace for today.
2. Jesse Can Thrive on Less Sleep Than He Realized — Jesse has always needed more sleep than me. But this year, he got up every single night with a baby for months on each — and he realized that, when needed, he can thrive on less sleep. (I think it’s also connected to point #1, too!)
3. I Can Have a Baby Without Having Postpartum Depression — I’ve always struggled with pretty intense PPD and anxiety for months after having a baby. This time around, we approached things very differently and I had almost zero PPD or anxiety! It was amazing!
4. Foster Care is Brutal But Beautiful — This was one of the most emotionally stretching years we’ve ever walked through. Falling in love and advocating hard for a child only to say goodbye is brutal, but the memories and lessons we learned and how our hearts were forever changed as a family is so beautiful. Plus, we now have a sweet boy AND his mama to love — which is such a gift!
5. Turning 40 Is Not a Terrible Thing — Jesse turned the big 4-0 and he survived just fine. 
6. I Am Not the Workaholic I Once Was — I worked a lot fewer hours this year and worried a lot less about all things running a business. And it was amazing! I realized that I used to spend a lot of time investing in and stressing over things that really don’t matter in the long run.
7. Jesse Discovered That Audiobooks Really Are Amazing — I’ve been trying to convince him of this for a long time, so this was a big victory… of course, then it meant that he ended up almost beating me in the number of audiobooks listened to!
8. I’m More Extroverted Than I Realized — Having so many things cancelled and spending so much time at home taught me to value and appreciate community so much more. AND, it helped me to realize that while I’ll always be an introvert at heart, I really, really love being around life-giving people. Zoom is just no replacement for face-to-face community.
9. Teaching a Teen to Drive is Not as Hard as We Envisioned — Jesse and I have both gotten to tag team together on teaching Kathrynne to drive and it hasn’t been as hard or as scary as we envisioned it might be. (Jesse has done a lot more of the teaching than me and he’s actually really enjoyed it!)
10. We Really Like Each Other — This might seem like a weird thing to put on our list of things we’ve learned, but with all the time we spent at home this year, we discovered anew just how much we like each other and how we just love hanging out together.

Listen in to the episode to hear us share our perspective and a lot more details on each of these lessons.

In This Episode: 

[00:36] In this episode, we’re reflecting on 10 things we learned in 2020.

[02:12] The first is that God gives grace for the present not the future.

[07:26] Jesse learned that he can thrive on less sleep than he realized.

[10:13] I learned that I can have a baby without having PPD.

[16:14] Foster care is brutal but beautiful.

[19:57] Turning 40 is not a terrible thing.

[22:49] I am not the workaholic that I once was.

[26:29] Audiobooks really are amazing.

[27:45] I have found that I am more extroverted than I thought.

[29:25] Did you know teaching a teen to drive is not as hard as you might think?

[31:56] One of the greatest lessons we’ve learned is that we really like each other.

[35:29] A quick quote to close out the year.

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