2011- Year in Review

Didn’t I just ring in the new year?

I know I say it every year but they just seem to keep getting faster. I heard an aged friend say that
when you believe in Santa Christmas comes every 5 years, when you are Santa it
comes every 5 months, and when you look like Santa, it comes every 5 days. I am
so thankful to “be” Santa right now and I am trying to savor all the sweet
wonder on the faces of my 2 sweet tots in their footy pajamas.

For the past several years I have been writing our “Russell
Family Digital Christmas Card”, it is my attempt at reflecting on and
summarizing the year in passing. So here I go……

In January, I woke up to a dream I had my whole life. I was
at DISNEY WORLD! That’s right, I spent the first day of 2011 in Disney World.
Ryland’s Grandmother Mary (Russell) Rose and her husband, Tom, loaded 40ish
family members onto a charter bus and took us to Florida for a week. In my dreams I probably wouldn’t have planned to take a 10 week old baby, but she was a great little traveler, she napped on and snuggled on her adoring aunts, uncles, grands, and cousins. Isaac was in
complete amazement of the rides, shows, and characters- I cry when I think of
the look on his face watching the light parade on our last night. It was pure
joy. It was one of the sweetest and most precious gifts I have ever been given.
I will treasure it forever. And I NEED to go back! (Praying for an
unrealistically huge tax return!)

We returned home from paradise intact and made plans for a
very special birthday weekend for my two sweet boys on the first weekend of
February. We were supposed to celebrate in Arkansas with Mimi and Poppy but 21
inches of snow and 2 weeks of blizzard like conditions cancelled our plans. We
hunkered down and spent two weeks watching movies and sitting in our pj’s. Isaac celebrated his second birthday and Ryland celebrated his 27th as snow continued to fall.

In March God answered a year- long prayer: our house in
Guthrie sold! We were glad to see it go after putting in piers, fixing a busted hot water
heater, and several months paying both rent and a mortgage. It was a tough
time, but God remained faithful and met all our needs. He’s always good about
that.

April brought our great Easter production at church. And on
Easter morning Isaac woke up with a very high fever which turned out to be the
flu. Which he passed to Hope. Which they passed to me. We spent a lot of time
at home in April. The highlight of April was paying off my student loans. It is
a goal of ours to be completely debt free. This was one step closer. We are one
car away!

In May we used part of our tax return to take a trip to
Branson with Jeje, Pawpa, and Uncle Lane. We swam indoors, Silver Dollar
Citied, showed, ate, and had fun. We traveled to Arkansas to see Ryland’s
sister, Hilary, graduate from high school. From there we took a short weekend
trip to OKC to watch Ryland lead worship for a revival, and we ended the month
at Bigheart Day and my (sigh) 10 year reunion. Yes, I’m old.

June began the camp season. We kissed Ryland goodbye and held
the fort down at home. I worked the summer session at the pre-school, so two
days a week I got to take school age kids on fun field trips, Isaac got to
splash with his buddies, and Hope got to snuggle with her Miss Tonya. Hope
decided she had spent enough time being immobile and started crawling.

July brought the heat. Weeks upon weeks of 100 degree days.
We stayed indoors most of the time, except for a week that we spent in Eureka
Springs with Mimi, Poppy, and our cousins. Mimi took Isaac to an alligator
farm. And we went to a fantastic water/amusement park. Isaac was exhausted, but
blissfully happy. He loves anything that involves his cousins. We had VBS at
church, Isaac loved the music. He is quite a dancer.

August was still hot. Again, we spent most of the time
indoors. I think that the heat stroke has erased most of my memory of this
month!

In September we went back to school…well…preschool, that is.
I am still teaching pre-school music at Grand Central Kids. I love my job. No
lesson plans, short classes, no grading, and cute kids. We get to sing about
Jesus and dance. It is sweet. We took Isaac to see “The Lion King” in 3D. It
was his first movie. He wore his glasses and sang all the songs. He is
enthusiastic about everything. This was no different. He even told his Dad that
Mufasa was his best friend.

October was kicked off at the Tulsa State Fair with Jeje and
Pawpa. Hope loved sampling the local flavors, Isaac rode the ferris wheel with
me. He asked me if he could scream when we went down, and scream he did! We
celebrated Hope’s first birthday, Mimi and Poppy showed up just in time to see
Hope walk across the living room for the first time. I’m afraid she might be
just a bit of a show off. We celebrated her first year and my 29th.
Ryland took me for a much needed overnight trip complete with shopping, movies,
and eating out. I was thoroughly loved.

November was a blur- we spent Thanksgiving in Chickasha, and
we met our new cousin, Dawit for the first time. He arrived from Ethiopia with
his proud new family, Kent, Georgia, and Blake Bush during the summer. Dawit is
in the process of learning English but he said, “baby!” over and over- he
really loved Hope and kept sneaking little hugs and kisses. We went to the
Festival of Light and worked on our Christmas shopping.

And sweet December. Ryland worked tirelessly to put on our
Christmas musical, complete with fog, snow, amazing music, a sleigh, a living
nativity, and a stomp style drum line. It was incredible. I was blessed to be
part of it. It was Isaac’s first time to sit in “big church”. He sat on the
front row and during my solo I could hear his little voice saying, “hi momma,
hi momma!”. We visited Santa at Bass Pro
Shop where Isaac asked for a “Dragon Happy Napper” and Hope screamed in terror
when we handed her to Santa. We also rode the Christmas train where we saw an
account of the life of Jesus. I had a yucky case of stomach flu the weekend
before Christmas and ended up dehydrated! Luckily I bounced back in time to
catch all the holiday fun. We hosted Christmas morning at our house with my
parents and Ryland’s. It was the first time I have ever been in my own house on
Christmas morning. I loved it- I can see why people get so defensive about
being home on Christmas. We traveled to Dewey, Barnsdall, and Chickasha to see
our Granndparents and celebrate. I even spent the wee hours of December 26th
at the hospital in Chickasha, Hope decided to run a high fever and scare me.
Isaac and Ryland snoozed in our hotel room until we returned.

And now here I am, just 24 hours from 2012. Putting to bed a
year that has been challenging and incredibly full of blessings. And in the short term, planning to cook several of our favorite dishes from Bahama Breeze (RIP, but thank God for pinterest!) for my family to ring in the new year.

This year marks the smallest income that we have known as a
couple. But it is also the year where we have paid off the most debts. It is
the year where we have had major needs that we couldn’t afford- but people and
unexpected providers showed up, and in turn we were able to give to many others
this year. It hasn’t been easy, my attitude has been crummy many times. I let
myself get bogged down in things beyond my control, but God is bigger and more
generous than I deserve and I am so blessed more than I deserve. And as we face
another year with no raises, and increasing expenses, I know God will still be
faithful as we strive to be good stewards of the gifts we’ve been given.

I have goals and dreams for 2012. I am hoping that this will
be the year that we become completely debt free. We are close! I pray that my
family stays healthy, that my extended family and friends who are fighting hard
ailments will find healing. And that Ryland and I will glorify God in our
parenting, decisions, and finances. We are going to do our best to plan time
off, and actually use it to rest! We are so bad about using time off to do
extra work. I am planning on doing a 5K before I turn 3o in October. And in the midst of child rearing, I want to remember to keep falling in love with the amazing baby daddy that God gave me in the first place- I love that guy!

My children are growing so fast. Isaac is so smart and
funny. And Hope is a happy little dancer. They bring me more joy than words can
express. I am weepy and nostalgic when I think of them this time last year-
Isaac was only talking a little, and Hope was a newborn. So different from the
two funny little people that I know now. I can’t believe that God thought that
I was good enough to deserve them. I hope I can live up to that responsibility.

I am also hoping to blog more next year. We’ll see…..

Happy belated holidays, beloved. Praying that 2011 was
sweet, and that 2012 holds blessings that are even sweeter.