My Word for 2015

I've read a few blogs where the writer chooses a word for the new year. Rather than a resolution, this word is a representation of what is to come, goals to work towards. I like that idea. I like the flexibility of a word. So, this year I've decided to do the same.

But then when I sat down to think about it, I found out it's actually really hard to put all of your eggs in a one word basket. There's so much pressure on that one word, to get it right, to choose a meaningful and impactful one. No one wants to choose a lame word, you know?

But then I just said screw it, and went with my gut.

And the word my gut was saying was the word HOPE.

2015 will be a year of hope. The year we leave a place that has been our home for almost 7 years. The year James starts his PhD and we live on a one person income with two kids. The year we try and figure out a teaching job for me and a new school for Isa. The year we find a daycare for Morgan. The year we start to plant our roots.

As I enter this new year I am filled with excitement and anxiousness. I am nervous for all of the things we have yet to hear back from. I am worried about our finances.

But I am hopeful. I am hopeful that our kids will thrive in Maryland, with family surrounding them and the beauty of that great state as their backyard.

I am hopeful that I will find a job and James will love being in school full time.

I am hopeful that eventually we will find a place to live, however small.

But most of all, I am hopeful for a Saviour who loves me beyond measure.

I like this word because it reminds me that things will be so so good, but also hard. Hope means believing that things will work out whether smooth or difficult. I know I will need to hold onto this word through those difficult and uncertain times, just as much as I hold on to it during the exciting and new times.

So cheers to 2014, you were my last full year in this beautiful crazy country of Mexico which I now call home. And cheers to 2015, with all of its new beginnings and unknowns. You make me so hopeful.