2014 Year In Review

And now I present - the 2014 Michael and Cheryl Year in Review! 10 friendship points if you can make it all the way to the end!

We start the year in January, in which I decided to try and re-enter the full-time working world outside the home, and started looking for a job. The idea was that we were ready (sort of) to start a family, so I could work for however long in the interim to help us save money for whatever lay ahead. I’ll have to do a separate series of blog posts about our pregnancy journey so far, but for now I’ll just say I still couldn’t have foreseen with any certainty that we would be starting a family this year. We had been putting it off for so many years and I could’ve easily been ok with putting it off further still, so things were up in the air.

As we thought about these things, we began considering foregoing trying to conceive altogether and just adopting. I’m somewhat of an oddball of a female and have never felt a strong desire to be pregnant or to have a baby. Not that I was against it – well, that’s a lie. There have been times in my life where I’ve adamantly thought I DO NOT WANT to have kids. Anyway…I just haven’t ever felt like it was one of those things I just HAD to do. Michael also didn’t feel any burning desire for us to have a biological child. So, we started looking into the adoption thing and it just happened that our church partners with a non-profit pregnancy and adoption organization called Anchor Point. AP was conducting an intro to adoption class and we decided to do the class. It was a fantastic experience. Even though I’m adopted and know so many people who have adopted, we learned so much about the actual process of adopting, especially locally. By the end of the class we felt equipped to start that journey, whenever that may be, and had a much better picture of all the process will entail. But something else interesting had happened. We both were left with a growing desire to adopt, but suddenly out of nowhere came this other desire in both of us to have go ahead and try to have a biological child. I can honestly say it was the first time that I thought…yes, I’m sort of ready to try this and see what happens.

So, we decided that I would go back to work and we would start trying to conceive at some point in 2014. It was for reals this time. No more saying, “Next year…next year…”

Back to the 2014 timeline. By March, God provided a full-time job for me as a “Logistics Specialist” for a company right next to Johnson Space Center. My company contracts with NASA and other public and private sector agencies to do meeting and travel logistics, interpretation, and documents translation. The transition to going back to work full-time outside my house was much more difficult than I anticipated (Where did all my free time go?? :) but in time things leveled out and we now have a good routine going. Michael has continued working at the engineering/construction firm he’s been at since last May. They’ve had some big layoffs and there is always that possibility that he could be let go, but so far they’ve kept him on. He plans to stay and ride it out for now. If he gets laid off then we’ll see what else God has for us!

In May, we got to take the trip of a lifetime to the Galapagos Islands (off the coast of Ecuador) with my parents. Michael and I had never been anywhere in Latin America other than Mexico, and it was an amazing trip filled with beautiful wildlife, scenery, and quality time with my parents. My pictures and some narration about the trip are up on Facebook. I am so thankful for the amazing vacations we’ve had, and for parents willing to bless us with basically free vacations! :)

In July, about a month and a half before the lease for our rent house was to end, we decided to bite the bullet and buy a house! We considered a few different options – traditional mortgage on an existing  home, buy a piece of land and put a manufactured home on it, buy a trailer and live in it until we could buy some land and put a home on it, etc., but we settled on a traditional home purchase and mortgage in the end. The whole process of finding the house and getting the loan from start to finish was both easier and harder than I imagined. It was crazy and time consuming, but I’m glad we decided to do it, even if it meant relinquishing some of my dreams to move away from Texas at some point in the near future. ;) So anyway we started looking for houses and jumping through all the hoops, and finally found our Roseberry house. It’s a normal 3-bedroom, 2 bath house, built in the late ‘70s, and about a 20-30 minute drive from our jobs and church.

In September, in the midst of the house hunting, loan approval process, etc., we found out I was…dun dun dun…pregnant! It was exciting and surreal and terrifying all at once. I basically liken it to walking off a cliff. It’s like…wow, I guess there’s no turning back now. Life’s about to get nuts! Again, I’ll have to blog a separate series about how pregnancy has been, but the short version is I’m feeling great and things have been very easy for me so far. We just continue to walk each day trusting in God’s sovereignty for the outcome of this pregnancy.

September, October, and November were mainly busy with house stuff. We totally understand now why everyone says a house is a work in progress and you NEVER run out of projects for it (some fun, some not so fun). As of today we’ve gotten all the major stuff done that needed immediate attention – a new roof, a new breaker box, boxes unpacked and garage organized, that sort of thing.

In this timeframe we also finally said goodbye to faithful Max, the blue ’98 Saturn I bought in high school (first and only car I had ever bought). Michael was continuing to drive it to and from work, but alas, it was dying. We had to get another vehicle anyway because neither Michael’s truck nor my Saturn could comfortably accommodate a car seat, which we we’ll eventually need. So we ended up donating Max (it literally wasn’t even worth the time and effort of selling it) and we bought a pre-owned 2012 Mazda 3. Michael got his truck back and I got the new car woohoo!

Also in November, Michael invited one of his coworkers to rent a room from us, so that began as well. Turns out it will be a very short term thing as our housemate already moved out this week to start a new job near Dallas. It was good having him though, and it forced us to get our guest bathroom in order as well as buy a bed for our guest bedroom. My parents are already anticipating many visits to see their eighth grandchild and needed something other than an air mattress to sleep on. :)

And now we are finally to December, in which we found out we are having a GIRL! We both kind of wanted a boy, but now that we know we are super excited about having a little daughter. We’ve already settled on her name, so it’s been fun calling Nora June Moore by name.

Also in December, we started a new small group Bible study with our church. We are leaders in training under a couple from our last small group. The four of us have become fast friends and we are so very grateful for our friendship with them. We look forward to growing and learning with our new small group over the next couple of years.

On a related note, Michael and I have continued to plug in at our church. Michael volunteers on Sundays to run the laser light show (just kidding, but he does run lights) for the service, and I am serving with the high school/student ministry. We are also doing a 9-month leadership development program through the church and learning lots of interesting things about leadership and ministry.

So that was our year. It’s hard to believe we marked 6 years of marriage in October. We are so thankful to God for His continued goodness and faithfulness to us as we do life together. 2015 will be a big year as we (Lord willing) make the transition to being parents. (Cheryl? Responsible for a little baby? SCARY!) We look forward to whatever else God has in store for us and pray that 2015 will bring growth in our marriage and dependence on Christ and the gospel for every trial and joy God brings our way!