My 33rd Birthday!

This past Saturday, I celebrated my 33rd birthday! It was a nice laid back weekend and it was exactly how I wanted it. On Friday, Dave and I went out to dinner at a restaurant called 13 Gypsies and it was tapas style food. It was phenomenal. I think we honestly tried about 10 things and all of them were delicious! I will definitely be adding this to our date night choices and I have no idea why we waited this long to try it out. After dinner we went to Emily & Will's house to pick up the girls and roast marshmallows by the bonfire. We have finally this past week started getting cool weather and I love it! I have been sporting every sweater and boot I have! :) Saturday we had a vball game, then went to lunch at Palm Valley Outdoors and then went to Jessica & Gregg's to watch the FL vs. GA game. Sunday we had a huge family feast at Marcia's and my parents joined in. It was an insane amount of crab legs we ate!:) I was spoiled rotten and got a new apple watch, new set of pots and pans, and a new blender. All of which I was so excited about. I am clearly in my 30s when asking for new pots and pans for my birthday present LOL! So moral of the story it was a great weekend spent with family and friends.

In addition to my celebrating, I went back to read my blog post on my 32nd birthday. I had just had my first miscarriage 1 month earlier and I was at a low point. I vowed to be a better friend, reach out to others going through similar situations, and live out God's purpose for my life not my own. You can view the post here. I can confidently say that I did a pretty good job of living out those goals. Those goals are lifelong goals that will always need to be worked on but the growth in this past year has been insane.

And by growth, I mean my own spiritual growth. By starting BSF, it forced me to read the Bible. In the past, I thought hearing the messages at church and doing devotions was teaching me plenty so I wasn't missing anything by not actually reading chapters of the bible everyday. Boy was I wrong! 1. It is a fascinating book. More times than not I will read a chapter and then go well what happened after that or before and I end up reading for 30 minutes because they are great stories. 2. It literally is how God speaks to me. I will be having a rough day and on numerous occasions, I open the next chapter I needed to read and several verses addressed what I was struggling with. I have not heard God audibly but it is definitely one of those "Thanks God, or Ouch God" moments.

I have a LONG way to go till I could retell stories of the Bible or recite verses. But I do know that no matter what situation I am going through there is a story of someone who faced the same thing and some advice on how to handle that situation. It provides such hope and reminds you that you can trust in God for everything.  Just like all these women who were blessed with a child after being barren! :)

Did I think when writing my 32nd birthday post, I would include to my story a 2nd miscarriage and a failed frozen transfer attempt, no sure didn't. But I also didn't realize the growth and trust I would gain from God through those struggles. So for my 33rd year I want my spiritual growth to continue, my quiet time with God to become a bigger priority, and my prayer life to grow. I really feel like 33 is going to be all about being a better prayer and who knows maybe God will answer our prayers and grant us with a miracle baby. In the meantime I am waiting for God to tell me where to go next. So basically I am in the waiting. And thats ok because that is where the most growth occurs. Our church message this weekend was all about while in the waiting, Be patient and keep praying! So that is what I am going to do in my 33rd year of life. Can't wait to look back at this post 1 year from now and see how God is moving in my life! :) If you haven't heard the song "Take courage" by Kristine Demarco it is amazing!!! Totally my life song right now!

 I hope you guys are all doing well and I miss posting blogs so I am going to start coming back more often! Talk to you all soon! XOXO