2015 has been a great year for the Hague family! Our verse for this year was Proverbs 3:5-6. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and and He will make your paths straight." This verse has been posted to the mirror in my bathroom since January, reminding me daily that my own understanding is not what I should be clinging to. Instead, I should be trusting the Lord in everything, acknowledging Him in everything. That's an easy thing to want to do but a very hard thing to act out daily. Thankfully, I'm not doing this on my own. We've had some really big highs this year and a few lows as well as you can't live life without some of those thrown in. And as a good friend recently pointed out to me, we definitely have had a lot of situations this year where we've had to trust the Lord and do just what this verse asks. I pray that we've lived this verse out this year as we've walked in those situations. As we near 2016 and seek out a new verse to put up on our mirror, I decided that we should post some of our highs and lows here since I haven't updated the blog since bringing home our precious little boy Micah in April.
High:
We brought our Micah home in April! Everyone in our family adores this little guy, and we couldn't quite imagine life without him. I thank God daily that he let me be his mama. Micah definitely has his own little fan club by way of Kirsten, Joshua, and Caleb. They love their baby brother! Kirsten especially adores him and wrote a book in her first grade class recently about her favorite day ever, naming the day that we adopted Micah as her favorite. Most of the time I spend my time trying to keep them from squishing him because they love him so much, which is far better than the alternative of them not liking him and me trying to persuade that. I should start counting the times I say "careful" or "gentle" each day!
High:
Kirsten had a great time with Jeremy at the Daddy/Daughter Dance on Valentine's Day while I got to go to the IF:conference at Fellowship Bible in Little Rock. This was a win all around since Kirsten is a big fan of Daddy, and I loved being able to spend some time with a great group of women learning and growing in the Lord. Kirsten also had a great end of the year in Kindergarten and got the award in her Kindergarten class for being the Cheerleader in class, always cheering others on for their accomplishments. This isn't surprising at all since she is also the biggest cheerleader in our house. When someone else does something great, she's the first to give praise. I kind of love that about her!
Low:
We said goodbye to Jeremy as he left for four/five months. Life without Daddy around is never easy. We all miss him like crazy when he's gone. This was our third go around at this type of thing, though, so I feel like we've learned some things along the way to prepare us. Keeping space for him in our lives, keeping him in the loop and involved in parenting decisions is never easy on the front end, but it always pays in the long run. So while we missed him a ton, we kept things going with tons of help. And although I breathed a collective sign of relief each night when everyone was asleep, we made it through. We also had tons of people praying for us and tons of people helping us through this. One sweet family brought us dinner one night each week, every single week without fail. Others invited us out at every turn, and we had a steady stream of family coming and going all summer long.
High:
We celebrated Kirsten's 6th birthday and Caleb's 3rd birthday with grandparents who came in to help us celebrate! Jeremy's parents came to celebrate Kirsten's birthday, and my mom came to help me throw Caleb's party. Every other year we throw a party for our kids, and their off year is spent doing something fun with just our family. Kirsten wanted to paint, so she painted a pink elephant to celebrate this year right before Jeremy left. When Grandpa and Grandma came into town, she got to celebrate again by going to the zoo. Who wouldn't want to celebrate turning 6 twice? Caleb loves dogs, so his 3rd birthday party theme of "If You Give a Dog a Donut" was easy to come up with. Friends came over, we ate donuts, read the book, went on a scavenger hunt, and ended by decorating kites that everyone got to take home. He was a big fan of his donut shaped cake!
High:
We went on a trip around the country to visit family right after school ended for the summer. First we stopped in Pennsylvania, and next we went to Florida. All in all, we were on the road for about a month. I had help driving on every route of our trip which was a huge blessing when it comes to traveling with four kids. As you can imagine. There were lots of rest stops, lots of bottle stops, lots of crying, lots of snacks, lots of movies, lots of food stops, and a few hotel stops on each leg of the trip, but we made it. And it was worth it. In Pennsylvania we stayed up late catching fireflies and telling jokes. We played outside every day in the kiddie pool, running around the fields, and at the park. And much to everyone's delight, we went to Idlewild, a fun amusement park that is just for kids. In Florida, we spent tons of time at the beach, celebrated the 4th of July, and spent time with cousins at the Marine Science Center, the movies, and the Museum of Arts and Sciences.
Low:
We spent part of our trip to Pennsylvania in the hospital. Micah was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia and bronchiolitis during our stay in Pittsburgh, and we found ourselves with a four night stay at the Pittsburgh Children's Hospital. This was a blessing in disguise as we were surrounded by family. Jeremy's parents and sister, who was also visiting, went ahead with their vacation plans, and the three big kids did all kinds of fun things while I was free to snuggle and love on the little man. He was his happy self during the whole ordeal, and the Pittsburgh Children's Hospital was wonderful in every way.
High:
Everyone started back to school in August! Kirsten started first grade, Joshua started pre-k twice a week, Caleb started in a three year old class twice a week, and even Micah started in a class twice a week where some wonderfully sweet grandmas love on him! He loves it, but I think they love his snuggles more!
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