I have been wanting to blog for SO long, but have had so many things going on. Wow! I honestly don't know where all the time goes. I have been missing you my friends.

I love the "holiday season" ~ it is my favorite time of year. For me, it's a chance to spend time with family and to reflect on all the goodness of the Lord that we have seen come to pass over the last year. We have experienced LOTS of goodness, grace and mercy over this past year and for that, I am so very thankful!

However, we have also had some very challenging things happen over the last year and even these from just the past couple of months. From Danny losing his job unexplained, to the unexpected death of a cousin who hadn't even had a chance to really experience life yet, to the "home going" of a young man whose life was cut short by cancer, to family members that walk out of our lives for reasons that we cannot explain or understand and to the unexpected challenges that have faced us with the pregnancy..........but yet, we TRUST him! There are times over the past few months that I have had my ups and downs. I have to chose to focus on the "goodness" of each situation, if I did not...at times, I felt as if I would lose my mind. So, at this "most wonderful" time of year, I chose to do just that. Although Danny losing his job was definitely not part of "our" plan and in spite of the financial challenges, I am thankful that hat he has been at home to help me. He has pretty much taken over every area of the household duties, etc. For me, that has been a HUGE blessing, but has also been very hard on a mom to relinquish "control". He has done everything from picking up & dropping off kids, to laundry, to cooking, taking care of me and making sure I have every opportunity to rest. For that and for him, I am so blessed and thankful. (By the way, he is a FABULOUS cook!) Sometimes, I don't understand death, especially when it happens to young people. In the case of my cousin, through her death, I have already seen how her death has affected some family members to move toward making positive changes in their life. I also believe that through the life giving words of Jesus Christ spoken at her funeral, there will be those who come to or have already come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In the case of the other young man, it is amazing to me how much "life" he lived out in his 30 short years. I feel SO very blessed to have known him. He was the kindest person you could ever meet and had the most contagious, infectious smile. He had a zest for life and had a way of making everyone around him feel special. I believe that he fulfilled his purpose that God had for him. We had the special pleasure of reading a book that one of his friends put together for him for his birthday. The words that everyone wrote explained how much of an impact that this young man had made on their lives. It was amazing!. I can't wait to get to heaven and see all those that are in heaven because of the impact that Kevin made on their life. We love his family and they are so courageous. We rejoiced with them in his "home going", but we are so sad that he is not here with us. Please keep his family in your prayers. In the face of difficult family situations, our hope and prayer is that regardless of the situation that they will only see Him in our lives. They might not understand or be able to explain why we do things in the manner which we do, but to us it's all because of the transforming love of Jesus Christ. We strive to not only live our lives in honor of him but also to be His arms extended to our children. We want to honor him in all that we do and we try to instill those same values in our children. There's a great song that we sing at church that says it like this: I want more of you, I want more of you, though it costs me EVERYTHING, to the cross my life I bring. Cause I want more of you Jesus, I want more.....so have ALL of me, so I might see more of your life in me. It is painful to walk through the "abandonment" of family members, but we know that God has a plan. My heart's cry is that all they see is more of Him in our family. This pregnancy has been quite a challenge for me physically. I am not used to having to slow down to a turtle's pace. But, it has given me PLENTY of time to reflect on Him and the things that He has for me. From an early hospital visit to the ever constant threat of complete bed rest........I am monitoring my contractions twice a day for an hour each time and am still getting my weekly (ouch!) shots. I feel as big as a house and thank God for my husband's sense of humor that helps me laugh off some of the not so fun moments.  We have 7 more weeks to go and can't wait for Jillian Hope's arrival.

It truly is  the "most wonderful" time of year. I thank God for this "season" that He has given me to reflect and am SO looking forward to all the great things he has in store for us in 2010! These are some of the ones that I am most thankful for.......my sweet family. I am SO BLESSED!

The Williams Family 2009 (Jon, Abby, Danny, Me & Jillian, Kylie & Kelsey)

I enjoy blogging and will try to be better about it, and also promise that it won't be so "heavy". I just needed to pour out my heart, I guess. For that my friends, thank you for letting me be me and for loving me. With much love and blessings!