In January, our YWAM Bend team was blessed with a 3-day stay at a friend’s cabin. In less than a year, the six of us had gone from sharing a house, to living 45 minutes apart and having no team meetings for over 3 months.
During our Retreat weekend, Duane led us through “The Best Year Ever” course by Michael Hyatt. We took time to reflect on the past year, appreciate how much we had learned and grown, and let go of the disappointments. Then we began to dream again and set goals in order to make 2016 our best year ever.
Up until our retreat, I had been deep in survival mode. Adjusting to parenting two kids, and the extra challenges Lioness’s cleft palate presented. All the while, I was incredibly thankful her Treacher Collins Syndrome was so mild.
During our retreat, I took time to reflect on the past season. I realized just because it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, doesn’t negate the fact the past several months had been really tough. I was finally able to face the disappointments, grieve the losses, and gain the strength to keep going. You can read the full story in my blog post titled: “It Could Be Worse.” That was one of several blogs which I wrote earlier this year.
During our retreat, one of the goals I set, was to blog 50 stories this year (roughly 1 per week). Quick before I forgot, I wanted to write (and share) cute stories of things Monkey did or said, and the challenges and victories in Lioness’s journey. Knowing our stories would encourage and inspire others and hopefully make them laugh. At the very least, the written memories would be fun for our family to look back on and remind us of how God so faithfully and lovingly cares for His children.
