Blessed Beyond Measure

My first time to hold and look at this beautiful little boy, Jude!

As some of you may or may not know, I got to spend the week between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve with my family.  Although all my friends here in Bolivia knew I was going home, my family had absolutely no clue!!  I giggle every time I think about it...It was one of the greatest surprises that I have ever pulled off.  I have really always loved surprising people from showing up unexpectedly for a long weekend home, jumping out of closets to scare people, showing up in a different state for my friends birthday, and so many others.  So when my sister-in-law Jordan put me on her Christmas list as something she wanted for Christmas, I knew I had made the right decision to surprise them for Christmas.

In November, I intentionally purchased my ticket  to have an overnight layover in Dallas so that I could meet my friend Rene's new boyfriend and see the Dickens and their 9-month-old, Truman.  I knew that coming back to the US, I needed to see some of my friends along with my family.  My heart was overjoyed and my spirit refreshed to hug and converse with these beautiful people that I missed so much.  I also contacted my friend Ashley to pick me up from the airport and take me to my parents' house.  She is always such an encouragement to me when I see her and this time I was also encouraged by her brother Kevin.  I am truly blessed by God to have friends that love me, encourage me, and lift me up.  I can't wait to see and hug on others this summer!

It really did not seem real that I was going home until I was actually on the ground in Dallas hugging Rene's neck and then again driving from Little Rock to my parents' front door.  Here is a video of me surprising them...thanks to Ashley for the great camera work. (The link is to where I uploaded it onto Facebook.)

Christmas Surprise Video

The rest of my Christmas Eve consisted of surprising my sister-in-law Jordan (video on Facebook), tickle fights with my nieces and nephews, holding my new nephew, surprising my brothers, surprising my grandpa and step-grandma, surprising Kathy Rowlett (her face was priceless), holding Jude, the Christmas Eve service at Downtown, and holding Jude.  It was really fun to surprise so many people in one day and of course meet my new nephew, Jude!

As you can imagine, Christmas day I did not get very many wrapped gifts, but the gift of being with my family was the best gift I could have ever received.  God also blessed me with a white Christmas.  Christmas night central and northeast Arkansas were under a blizzard warning.  In all my years of living in Searcy, we barely got snow and if we did it was in January or February.  We woke up the day after Christmas to 6 to 8 inches of beautiful, softly fallen snow.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!  My dad and I built a snowman and made snow angels while mom made Chex mix ( I love the smell of it cooking!). Later I spent time playing with my nieces and nephew in the snow at their house.  They were so excited!

The remainder of my time was filled with many blessings such as my favorite meal of poppyseed chicken, shopping with my mom, Starbucks run with my papa :), catching up on Duck Dynasty with Jordan, Mexican with Penny and Jason, spending time with my brother-from-another-mother Scott and his new wife Melissa, getting my hair cut, getting to wear sweatshirts and scarves, worshiping with Downtown Church, soup with my parents' small group, phone calls with Amy and Kat, and the hugs... hugs are my favorite!

My blessings number the stars and my time with family and friends are many of those blessings!  How great is our God that he would give me the opportunity to laugh, cry, be encouraged by, and loved on by these beautiful people that I have been blessed to call family and friends.  You all bring JOY to my heart!  I praise God for bringing joy to my heart through the people (even my brothers and sisters in Bolivia) in my life not the things that I have or don't have or the places I am or am not.  He continues to make it known to me that He is all I need, and there are little bits of Him in every person that I come in contact with. 

Jordan and Jude...LOVE them!

The best we could get...hahaha!