As promised, we wanted to share our "words" for 2010 and 2011. Enjoy!
Lauren:2010 = Awful / Awe-full*This might sound really cynical, but I tried to think of a word that encompassed a lot of different things. (feel free to suggest a better one!) Awe-full as in full of awe at some of the things that have happened this past year. It was an awful experience in a lot of ways buying our first house, but I was in awe of God's timing for us and in awe of the possibilities before us. I have been in awe of the scope of life and how joy and sorrow can seem to go hand in hand. Jon's word for 2010 explains a lot of the awe and awfulness that we experienced last year.
2011 = Open (adj.)* As I look ahead to 2011, a word that keeps coming to me is "open". I want to go into this year with open hands and an open heart. I want to be open to new possibilities. I want to open my hands widely and give generously. I want to be open when things don't go my way- to be willing to set aside my desires and expectations for another. I want to be open to giving myself grace to struggle, to grow, to accept who I am and where I am. And most of all, I want to be open to all that God has for me- whether through pain, through uncertainty, or the great blessings He gives me. To be open to all that he wants to do in me and through me.
Jon:2010 = Family (n .)*Lauren and I experienced "family" in so many new ways this year. In this our third year of marriage, we are growing increasingly together as our own unique family - for now just the two of us. We rang in the '09/'10 new year on the heels of having just lost Mammaw, Lauren's grandmother on her mom Beth's side. She was dear to all of us and we came into the holiday season last year with heavy hearts and began 2010 thinking a lot about Lauren's family during this time of loss.
We found out in March that my brother Ben and his wife Summer were expecting their second baby, due on December 25, 2010 (he came on 12/11/10). My family was growing!
Not only were new babies being born into the Thompson family, but a wonderful new addition was announced in the spring by way of an engagement. My sister Rebecca and her soon-to-be husband Michael will be married in 2011! Around this same time Lauren and I bought our first house - a big step for our young family.
In April, Nana and Pop-Pop, my grandparents on my mom's side suffered a vehicle-totalling car accident that put Pop-Pop in the hospital with a ruptured spleen that nearly killed him; later in August, after his recovery, we celebrated Pop-Pop's 86th birthday!
But as you all know now, August brought an accident that again broke our hearts and changed our lives with Andy's fall in Chicago. Lauren and I have spent the rest of this year struggling together alongside of Andy and our family; crying, praying, visiting, hoping. So again at the turn of the new year '10/'11 we found ourselves in much the same place as last year - holding in our hands both the considerable loss of the past year and taking hope and courage along into the next.
Andy at his Dermatology graduation dinner in the Spring.
2011 = Advocate (n.)
My desire for 2011 is that everything in my life be marked by knowing that I have an advocate in Christ. The truth of the gospel is that when we are
in Christ, our Father sees Him when He looks at us. This is good news indeed! But not only in that it allows for forgiveness, but also that in Christ I am seen as a son, and loved completely. This brings so much freedom, and I want my life to be all about living in this freedom. I also want to be an advocate for those in need (of course not in the way Jesus is for us) through the life I lead and the work that I do. I especially want my work to be about laboring for the flourishing of others. That's intentionally broad, but hopefully we'll have more to share on that in the coming months.
