Paul and I have experienced married bliss for three years now, and every year has brought something new. Year one and two we moved (sometimes more than once or even twice). During year three we learned we were having a baby.
Many of you know that every year we go somewhere for our anniversary. Year one was a rainy weekend spent in San Antonio. Year two was the disaster that is the island of Procida. Finally, after three years we hit the jackpot and finally had an anniversary trip without incident. Austria. The best country I’ve visited.
The past three years have been filled with new places, new homes, vacations we’d like to forget and vacations we always want to remember, a new language, new friends and learning we are having a baby girl. I wonder, other than the baby, what year four will hold.

I am sitting looking out a window in Germany at the mountains. Since a very small child my grandfather and dad had me outside in the woods or feeding the cows or planting the garden. Being outside in the quiet stillness is something that is part of my DNA – at least I feel like it is. I’d rather be hiking or sitting by a river or lake or walking through the woods breathing in the smell of the forest than anywhere else. It’s where I feel closest to God. Sometimes as I am in the middle of it all I try to picture it the way God created it in the beginning and I am overwhelmed that He allows me to see it. When I look out over His creation I get a sense of His glory.
Growing up in Mississippi I never really had the opportunity to be around mountains. Maybe that’s why I am so fascinated by them. Now, I live in a city that is more cement and people than anything else. I miss being able to walk out in the middle of nowhere with nobody around and sing or cry out or talk to God or to just be still. It’s where I feel most at home, and I owe the love I have for God’s creation to my dad and granddad. Two men who taught me to be amazed that God can bring forth fruit from a tiny seed. They helped me learn how to appreciate the beauty in a stand of pine trees and the changes of color in the leaves in fall. And as I look out over the mountains I wish they could see it and admire the handiwork of God.