Happy New Year - 2008 Reflections

I usually get pretty analytical at the end of a year as I think about all that has happened in the previous 12 months. It is always exciting to start fresh the first day of a new year. A lot of life has been lived the past year, and we are grateful to God for the many blessings and trials the year has held. I thought I would cap some of the highlights each month held. Thank you, God, for all You have given to us and allowed us to do this past year.

January

• We drove home to TN after celebrating Christmas and New Year's in PA

• David went to Nashville to visit good friends for a weekend

• David started classes at Pellissippi State - this was a HUGE step for him and I was so proud of him taking that step - he still worked full time at Sprint but wasn't very happy with his job there - we started praying that God would help him find his calling in life not just simply a job (thanks to 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller)

• Joy and Trey visited good friends Jenn and Parker in Kennesaw, GA for a couple days

• Trey got RSV - thankfully, he had a mild case that has left no residual asthma or breathing issues - he did have to be on nebulizer treatments for a couple weeks

February

• Joy started back to work in labor and delivery 1 night a week on David's day off

• We visited Matt and Renee for a weekend in Chattanooga, TN

• We started praying for direction as we sensed a strong need for change in our family - we were praying specifically for David's schooling and Joy's work - Joy wanted to be closer to her family - we pursued schooling and work options in PA as well in Virginia, North Carolina - we decided that we would also pursue Phoenix because Joy had lived there before and we knew there were plenty of opportunities for jobs and schooling

March

• Joy's parents stop to see us for 2 nights on the way back from Florida

• We bought our first Mac

• Stephen and Catherine (David's brother) visited Knoxville and were able to meet Trey for the first time

April

• Joy accepts the job at Banner Good Samaritan in Phoenix, AZ

• We celebrated Easter with Joy's brother Mark and family in North Carolina

• We had our first date since Trey was born - we went to an afternoon movie and David's parents watched Trey for us - it was so nice to get out together

May

• Joy's first mother's day

• Trey and Joy go visit the Perry family in North Carolina

• We took a family beach vacation with friends to Panama City Beach, Florida - Trey's first trip to the beach - we had so much fun with friends for the week

June

• David's first father's day and birthday fell on the same day - we had a wonderful weekend celebrating with David's family as his brothers were home that weekend

• Joy and Trey flew to Seattle for her brother's ordination - her parents, Grammy, and Aunt Sharon were all there too - it was Trey's first flight and he did great

• Trey started to crawl and got faster and faster each day

July

• We took a long weekend trip to Phoenix to look for housing

• Joy's celebrated her 30th birthday

• We celebrated Joy's parent's 40th wedding anniversary in PA with a trip home for all her siblings and a getaway to a cabin for a few days

August

• Trey got croupe and was in the hospital for 2 nights - a crisis at the time but a blessing in disguise as we were delayed in driving out to AZ (God's timing is perfect)

• We found out last minute that we weren't able to drive David's car to AZ - we packed everything in Joy's car and decided to sell David's car

• We moved from Knoxville, TN to Glendale, AZ - we were going to rent a condo short term until we bought a home but God provided in other amazing ways for us

• We started living and serving at UIM in Glendale and started looking for our own home to buy

• Joy started her new job at Good Sam

September

• We put a contract on a home in Goodyear, AZ - a beautiful 4 BR, 2 BA single story short sale

• David learned the ropes around UIM and is so great at what he does here - he works about 20 hours a week and then cares for Trey while Joy is working or recovering from working

• We celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary in San Diego, CA - we spent very little for our 3 night stay thanks to Priceline.com

October

• We bought our king size bed (David was super excited - Joy was nominally excited due to having no linen for a king size mattress)

• Joy was diagnosed with hypothyroidism

• We canceled our contract on the home in Goodyear, AZ after much prayer - we believe God is calling us to stay and serve at UIM for the time being - this is a great ministry that we are a part of where we are able to meet different missionaries - David has a great interest in aviation, and there are missionary pilots and aviation mechanics with UIM that David has been able to meet - we believe that God placed us here to give us further direction for our future

• Trey celebrated his first birthday

November

• Mom Perry came to visit - it was her 60th birthday while she was here and her kids, husband, and mom all went in together to surprise her with a cruise - Dad Perry came out the night before her birthday and surprised her as well and the 5 of us went on a 4 night cruise together to Mexico

• We celebrated Trey's birthday with friends and family while in Knoxville - Joy's brother and nephew came from NC for Trey's party and the Riese's came from GA - Trey and Parker have fun playing together

• We celebrated Thanksgiving in Knoxville, TN with David's family - we had so much being together - we were able to reconnect with friends - Matt, Renee, Stephen and Catherine were all home for Thanksgiving too

December

• We took a trip to Seattle to see Joy's brother for a few days before Christmas\

• We celebrated Christmas here as a family - it was a special day where we made a birthday cake for Jesus

• We started thinking and praying together about our future with missions - we believe that God has us here at UIM to expose us to missions and to prepare our hearts for a possible future serving Him full time in missions someday. We hope to take a trip down to Tucson, AZ sometime in the near future to meet some of the pilots and aviation mechanics with UIM - David is also meeting with an Arizona Air Guard recruiter next week about reenlisting in the guard