good-bye twenty-five

I will soon be saying good-bye to being 25 and hello to 26. Each year around my birthday I like to look back at the year that was compared to the year that I dreamed of. I have to say, this year is the first year that the actual year was way better than the year in my dream. I usually look back and think I thought I would accomplish more or I thought I would be better at so-and-so, and this year so much more happened then I anticipated.

I thought I would bring this year to a close by highlighting 25 things that made being 25 so great (got this idea from Elise Blaha):

1// We went on a road trip and hit up 7 states -Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota (Utah and Wyoming were my favorites).

2// Our fourth niece, Taryn was born.

3// Raeca had her surgery to correct sagittal craniosynostosis and it went better than expect and she healed sooner than expected.

4// We had our first real family photos taken. I’m not a fan of the camera but I am making sure we do this annually.

5// We took our youth group to camp for the weekend and it was amazing. A wonderful weekend full of laughter and worship (we may have have froze t-shirts in water and had a race to see which group could get theirs on first -we like to torture them like that so we can get some laughs).

6// Raeca played so hard that summer she would often end up falling asleep eating her night lunch.

7// I loved watching Rae eat plastic turtles play in her little pool.

8// We went on a Saskatchewan road trip to see the Crooked Trees. We never did find them but we had fun at a random small town park.

9// I took a lot of random photos of Raeca because I couldn’t resist her cuteness.

10// We played at the park –a lot.

11// We had an awesome night of worship in the park (looking forward to it again this year).

12// We celebrated Raeca’s first birthday.

13// Had lots of fun play dates.

14// Watched Rae mimic me on the phone, lots of fake laughs involved on her part.

15// Celebrated many birthdays.

16// Celebrated the birth of our Savior with family.

17// I began documenting our life in the nifty Project Life system.

18// My dream of visiting Africa came true and it was hard to leave.

19// We met our sweet sponsor boy, Gilver.

20// I gave up my photography business.

21// We went to California.

22// Raeca learned to wink.

23// We told the world that we are adopting.

24// We did lots of adoption paperwork.

25// Raeca’s hair finally fit into little piggy tails.

I will be turning 26 in just one short week and I am so excited to see what God has planned for that year!

with love,
Chantel