onward!

O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.

Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous work.

Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD.

Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.

Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgements of his mouth.

Psalm 105:1-5 

I turned 26 earlier this week.

Growing up, my birthday usually coincided with the first day of school; in my adult life, labour day weekend tends to eclipse the day. Which is totally alright by me - at work, I'm an extrovert by necessity, but apart from that setting, I'm definitely an introvert. Selectively social, and way more interested in a low-key, low-stress evening at home than some kind of big celebration. Don't get me wrong - I love people, but I find big social events stressful and draining. I know it doesn't make sense, especially considering what I do for a living.

I digress. Back to the point.

Twenty-five was a pretty great year for me. Jeff and I got engaged in the winter and adopted a second cat in the spring. I went to a whole pile of weddings this summer, including the long awaited nuptials of two of my very best friends from high school. I went to Ontario to hang out with my best friend for a week. I got really involved in my church, participating in small groups and volunteer in kids ministry (and realized just how much I missed the sense of community that comes from belonging to a church). I made new friends. I read some books (not as many as I would have liked) and binge-watched some Netflix (more than I should have). I wrote and rewrote and then scraped entire projects and stopped in favour of waiting instead of trying to rush the words out. I drank a lot of tea. I listened to a lot of worship music. I spent a lot of time at Starbucks.

That's not to say everything was perfect this year - there were definitely some stressful, hard times. But looking at the overall picture, I can truly say it was a pretty good year. God is good and I feel so grateful for the ways He's blessed my life over the last 12 months.

& the way He continues to pour out blessings. Twenty-six is shaping up to be a pretty incredible year, too. After procrastinating for the better part of nine months, wedding planning is underway. Jeff is going into his last year of his undergraduate degree and I just marked my third year full-time at the paper. I'm about $1,200 away from paying off my trip to Kenya in July, which I am BEYOND excited about, and after much prayer, I'm finally getting some clarity related to some elements of my life, while seeing redemption at work in others. Twenty-six is shaping up to be a year of very big things - transformational things. I keep thinking I should be nervous about it, but I'm too excited to be nervous.

The point of all of this is two-fold: first, I anticipate I'll be writing here more regularly throughout the year, especially in relation to the whole going to Kenya/getting married business. I don't think I'll ever be someone who can write a blog post every day - I'm just not that interesting - but I can do better than once a month.

The second element is a request: if you're reading this, could you please take a moment every once in a while this year to pray for me? Specifically, for my upcoming marriage (Oct. 15, 2016), my trip to Kenya, and just generally for wisdom to discern God's direction for my life. Faith might move mountains, but prayer moves God - I can't recall the origins of the quote, but I believe it with all my heart.