to my 20’s. Tomorrow begins my 30’s and a new chapter in my life. The past couple of weeks I have been debating amongst myself why 30 bothers me. I know it’s still young, but there is something about it that I’m not quite ready to embrace. My 20’s have been such a great part of my life, so many amazing things happened - maybe I’m worried my 30’s won’t be as good? I honestly don’t know and can’t seem to put it into words. I have decided, however, that I am going to just hop in and enjoy the ride that my 30’s will bring!

I figured that since I had been thinking about all that had happened in the past 10 years I wanted to share the highlights (and maybe not-so-highlights).

20 - I wasn’t exactly making the smartest choices this year and 3 months into my 20th year I was pregnant and single. This resulted in some deeply hurt relationships with my parents, who through it all loved me and helped me.

21 - Started this year off with a bang, and labor. That’s right I went into labor on my 21st birthday, gave birth to a beautiful little boy the next day who changed my life forever. As dumb as the choices I had made were, Gabriel was such an amazing blessing (still is!) and helped bring my heart back to my Heavenly Father who had also loved me through it all.

22 - Gabe & I moved into our own little house and I was involved with an amazing singles group at my church.

23 - Began feeling like I was going to be a single parent forever and decided that if that’s what God wanted for me then I would do it and be happy about it! A week later I “met” this nice guy on a Christian singles site. A couple of weeks before my 24th birthday, he proposed!

24 - Planned a wedding, got married, moved to southern New Mexico (far away from my family whom I’d always lived close to), became a stay at home mom.

25 - Spent a lot of time learning how to be a wife, making new friends and adjusting to being so far away from my family. Found out the day before our first anniversary that there was a baby on the way!

26 - Started homeschooling Gabe, gave birth to David in October and tried to adjust to life as a family of four!

27 - Learned I was dealing with PMDD (PMS on steroids) and had a fabulous doctor who was able to help get it somewhat under control. Homeschooled Gabe through 1st grade. Started working for the Children’s Ministry at church doing schedules, which stretched me in many areas but really helped me to grow!

28 - This year became very busy and somewhat overwhelming for me so I stopped decorating cakes at the end of my 28th year.

29 - What a crazy year this has been! Not long after my birthday Bill & I both felt that God was leading us to move. To Kansas. He started job hunting, I started packing. He started a serious job search at the end of July and by the middle of August had an amazing job offer that perfectly suits his talents, was more money and was 20 minutes from the little town my folks live in. A friend of mine and her family were just moving out of a cute little house with 3 bedrooms and a basement, only a block away from my parents. They moved out the end of August we moved in the middle of September. For two weeks after Christmas I was the primary caregiver for my grandma (who was 93 at the time) while my folks went to visit my brother & his family. In January Gabriel started public school and has just thrived and grown like crazy! February brought our 5th wedding anniversary!! What a wonderful 5 years they have been! In May I again took the role of caregiver for my grandma for a week while my folks went to visit my brother’s family again. The day my folks got back was the day before my grandma’s 94th birthday, my mom & I ended up taking her to the ER that night and she has been in the hospital since, having surgery on her 94th birthday. She will be coming back home (she lives with my parents) tomorrow, please be praying that things go well as she has definitely gone backwards in some areas during the past couple weeks. Like I said, crazy year!

God has been so good to me and so full of grace for such an imperfect me! I look forward to learning more about His grace and love for me as I continue to learn also about loving myself and realizing I was made in His image and therefore I am a beautiful creation. Looks like I have my work cut out for me as I enter my 30’s! After writing all this out I am definitely ready to leave it in the 20’s and I’m ready to take on my 30’s and enjoy them to their fullest!