This is my fourth year picking a word for the year and I always love this process! It helps me to get laser-focused on the new year and all throughout the year. And once again, I think I've landed on the perfect word for my goals and desires for 2018. 

Here are my past words: 

2012: Intentional

2016: Joy

2017: Create

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2017 brought many joys but it also brought with it a lot of hardship. So while I rejoice and thank God for 2017, I am excited to head into a new year to see what God has in store for us. And all of this has lead to my word for this year. But first, let me explain a little bit about how I got here: 

Our busy 2017: 

2017 started off with a bang! We welcome our sweet Magnolia Rose into our family on January 20th. Less than three weeks after she was born, as we were trying to adjust to life with 5 young kids, my nephew who was 5 months old at the time, was admitted into the PICU with a subcranial hematoma. 

He had surgery on his skull that night and while we are celebrating the fact that he is a happy and healthy 16-month-old today, we had many times over that first week that we didn't think he would make it. And it's been a long year of recovery since then. 

As our year progressed, we battled with food sensitivities with Magnolia. We didn't know what it was at the time but we had a two month stretch of time (3-5 months old) where she screamed nearly around the clock. It was tiring and emotionally draining. Thankfully we got the food sensitivities sorted out and she's one of the happiest children I've ever met - her 1st birthday is next week! 

As our year plugged along, we had joys and tiring time! But God is good and we focus on that. In the Fall of 2017, I started experiencing extreme fatigue. I had days where Jason would let me sleep in, I would get up and move around for a while and have to go back for a nap. 

Sufficient to say, it's hard to get anything done with that degree of fatigue. Finally, we figured out that I have some thyroid problems (which I suspected for a while) and adrenal fatigue (which I was also starting to suspect). I started a whole new line of supplements about 2 months ago and the effect already has been incredible!! 

I'm still very tired and I have better days and I have worse days, but as I focus on my nutrition and health more, it gets better by the day! All glory to God in the process! But this heavily influences my word for this year. 

Then on November 28th, my niece from a different sister, only 5 months old at the time was admitted to the same exact PICU ward that my nephew was in. This time for infant botulism! There are only about 100 cases of infant botulism in the US each year. She doesn't eat food yet and it still remains a mystery how she got it. 

Long story short, they were in the PICU for 3 and a half weeks. They were released 2 days before Christmas and they are al home and doing well! There is still a lot of physical therapy and weight gain that needs to happen, but once again we are praising God for a full recovery! 

I don't list all this out to complain - but rather so that I can look back over a long and exhausting year and see God's grace and His goodness each step of the way! 

Our 2017 Christmas photo!

However, it's also easy to let bitterness and resentment work it's way into my heart. Why can't life calm down for a bit?