Goodbye 2016....Hello 2017

2016 was really good to us.  We got to experience a year like we had never had before, celebrating milestone after milestone with our little boy.  His first year, though not devoid of difficult moments, was mostly easygoing. I never knew time could seem to slip through my fingers so fast until 2016.

 I'll never forget how strange the end of 2015 seemed.  We brought our baby boy home on Christmas Day, laid him in the crib, and I made Alfredo from a jar and noodles that we picked up at the Walgreens, the only place open where I could get my prescriptions after leaving the hospital. It was just the three of us at home for the first time.  After being in the hospital for Thanksgiving and most of December, everything felt so strange, not to mention having a new little one and losing my uncle.  It was all so surreal.  But, the new year came with new hope and excitement.  It did not disappoint. Now looking back at the end of 2016, we celebrated our baby boy's first birthday on December 23rd just the three of us again at home, and two days later, we had a big Christmas breakfast and dinner (Take that, Walgreens Alfredo!). We sat on the floor opening presents, trying to show our one year old that the toys were what he was opening to play with, not the box and the wrapping paper.  It was a fun time.

Happy 1st Birthday to Atticus!  He wasn't so sure about the cake! Ha!

This boy loved the wrapping paper.

Now as I sit midway through January of 2017, I think about all the promise that this year brings for us as well.  We will become a family of four soon and our time as three will be a little blip in our years, but we will treasure those memories and look forward to new memories when our little girl arrives.

I am 32 weeks pregnant this week and I cannot help but think that at 32 weeks pregnant with Atticus, I went to the hospital with complications.  I know every pregnancy is different and that God is in control, but I still think about it.  A well-known professor at the seminary came into our office last week and began to chat with me about my obvious baby bump.  Before he left, he said he would be praying that all would go well for us. I briefly shared that I appreciated his prayers because of what happened last year, and this is what he left me with...

"There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty. The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms." -Deut. 33:26-27

Praying that God will be our help and dwelling place in 2017 as we anticipate new adventures and rest in His everlasting arms.

For more from our 2016, follow travelingcroy on Instagram.