Cheers to 2016!

2015 has been a year y'all.  One of the most special years of my life and equally one of the most challenging.  2015 saw the birth of our sweet Greysen in April...a moment we will never forget...a moment that changed our lives forever in the best possible way.  Greysen has been all we hoped he would be an more.  He has challenged us and brought us greater joy than we could ever imagine. From the moment he arrived, we knew we would never be the same!  The end of 2015 has been a bit tumultuous.  First the onslaught of health issues with Jonathan beginning around the end of May (thankfully those issues have been almost completely resolved...praise God for that!),then the news of some scary health issues for a dear friend of ours, then an informal official offer for a career opportunity for Jonathan post residency (again...praise the LORD for that!).  We've been up and down and up again in the past 6 months!

2016 promises to be an equally interesting roller coaster ride.  We will be in Florida in January, in Texas in February, back in Florida in March, then in Baltimore for April, then here, there, and yonder during the month of May, then Baltimore again from June through September.  We will be applying for residency September 15th, and then the fall will be residency interview season...Lord only knows where those will take us!  Greysen will celebrate his first birthday in 2016.  He will learn to crawl (unless he figures that out in the next 4 hours), learn to walk, learn to talk, and grow like a weed...all in 2016.  That's almost more than I can fathom.  Jonathan will graduate from medical school in November...he will be DR. WOMACK by the end of September when he completes his final rotation.    I will complete my Master's degree in Marriage and Family Counseling in December.  Wow...what a year we have to look forward to!

Looking into 2016, I have to be realistic as well that there may be tragedies and sadness in store.  Maybe not...wouldn't that be amazing??  But never does a year go by where there isn't something saddening that happens.  But you know what my New Year's resolution is for 2016?  To focus on the JOY.  I'm resolving to focus on the happy in my life and in the world around me.  I'm choosing to celebrate the good...the amazing...the exciting.  And I'm resolving to shake off the sad.  It's inevitable that it will occur, but it doesn't have to be inevitable that it knocks us Womacks off our high horses.  2016 will be an amazing year of transitions.  And I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for our sweet little family...

Cheers to 2016!

The Magic of Christmas...

I lay here with my snoring baby in the crook of my arm this Christmas Eve. Can't seem to put him down!  Two years ago I was wishing for my own sweet baby, but excited to see the excitement of my 9 month old niece as she experienced the magic of Christmas Day for the first time. Last year I was waddling around with a second trimester baby belly after having sung at the Christmas Eve service at church. I laughed at pictures of my 8 month old nephew crawling all over the presents under the tree at my parents' house and couldn't wait to see the wonder in my own baby's eyes THIS year when he experienced the magic of Christmas for the first time. And tonight...

Well tonight we have the great privilege of having all FOUR of Greysen's grandparents under the same roof celebrating the birth of Christ and the beautiful addition of sweet baby Greysen to our family. It's a rare privilege and one I don't take lightly. We have snapped so many pictures already and the fun has just begun!  We started our own family traditions tonight as well with the first annual opening of Greysen's Christmas Eve box which contained a Christmas movie (this year it was the Muppet Christmas Carol), Christmas jammies, a Christmas ornament, a Christmas stuffie (it just HAD to be a Christmas Kermit the frog this year), and a Christmas book to read (this year's was The Night Before Christmas). Watching him open that box and watching our Christmas movie and reading him his book was so special. Even if it *was* mostly about us adults making memories...I know Greysen won't remember any of it...

But it got me thinking about why we have all of these "traditions" at Christmastime. What's the point?  Especially if the kids are too small to remember. For me, it's simple. WE do them because I want those snapshots in time. I want my 80 year old self to be able to reminisce with my 50 year old Greysen about "that first Christmas of yours when all your grandparents were there to celebrate with you". My 80 year old self will have clear and present memories of my mom and my dad and Bernice and Charlie. But who in the world knows what the next 50 years will bring?  I want Greysen, and all my children for that matter, to have clear and present memories of all of them too. Even if those memories are only there because Jonathan and I talked about them so often it feels like they are real. 

So I suppose what I'm getting at here is that being PURPOSEFUL has been such a huge, huge thing for me this year. I prayed for a baby for so many years. I went to sleep so many Christmas Eve's longing to have a baby to rock to sleep. Imagining what Christmas Day would be like when I was introducing my own sweet baby to all the magic that Christmas holds. And so tonight, as I sit writing this blog on my iPhone because I can't bear to lay my sleeping baby down after he's nursed himself to sleep, I am taking those mental snapshots. Soaking in all of Greysen's sweetness. Remembering how special it was to sit and enjoy the magic of Christmas Eve through HIS eyes tonight and anticipating how wonderful it will be for him to experience the magic of Christmas Day when we wake in the morning...

Yes, this year it may be all about the adults. But let's face it...we will never get Christmas 2015 back again. There aren't do overs!  So do it up big. Give lavishly, receive graciously, love unconditionally, fellowship warmly, laugh heartily, and enjoy fully. Christmas will come and go in the blink of an eye...but what will you say about it next year...or in 50 years?  Because those are the things that matter...  

Merry Christmas y'all...and to all a good night!