Well, another year has come & gone again, but for some reason this one feels much different from the past. Maybe it's because we experienced both the most exciting joy & deepest sorrow we have ever felt before. Or maybe it's because the future we thought we were planning for in the early months, has been flipped upside down now and we are no longer sure what's ahead for us. Regardless, I wanted to be sure to recap this year for my own benefit - to remember the good, the bad, and the ugly and more importantly, to hopefully one day see God's plan & reason behind what happened to us this year:
January - I started the year off with some
hope & goals for the new, as well as a
photo-a-day project that {I didn't know at the time} would continue throughout the rest of the year. As with previous years, I also continued posting about some book
reviews and shared more of my outfits through
"What I Wore Wednesday". I also shared my
Leap List on the blog and completed my
first item.
February -
WIWW continued and I even started creating outfits from my
Pinterest board. I shared
Sam + I's love story and a rare moment where
we got to babysit my adorable niece for the day. My photo-a-day's also continued with weekly posts.
March - More reviews, outfit posts, and photo-a-day posts this month, but I also completed another Leap List item {
my first massage!} and we started on a big house project - installing
laminate flooring throughout our house. We also found out we were pregnant this month, although no one knew yet :)
April - This month didn't have a lot going on except trying to keep our baby news a secret, so I kept myself busy by seeing
Wicked for the first time and hosting a
Stella & Dot giveaway {which was a lot of fun & I'd love to host more in the future}. I also continued my photo-a-day project.
May - Another relatively quiet month {mainly due to the unknown pregnancy - sensing a theme?} with the exception of my weekly photo-a-day recap posts, but we also had some fun this month.
Our niece turned one! And we
got away to Bend, OR for a little vacation between working on our floors some more. Our families learned of our upcoming bundle of joy, although we continued to keep the blog world in the dark for another month.
June - The big baby news month! Our niece helped
share the news and in addition to sharing some
pregnancy details, I also began my weekly posts about the pregnancy at
14 weeks. I also posted a special
shout-out to the fathers in our life because a new one {my husband!} would be becoming on in December. Other notable posts from June - I updated my
Leap List, continued photo-a-day recaps, and Sam & I celebrated our
4th wedding anniversary!
July - We started out this month with a trip to Nova Scotia {at
16 weeks pregnant} to see my dad and ended it with multiple doctor visits when they discovered a problem at our gender ultrasound. I filled the month with photo-a-day recaps, reviews, and a
Pinterest project, but this month sort of seems like a blur when I think back on it.
August - I took a break posting about the pregnancy for weeks 19 & 20 of the pregnancy due to the news we received in July, but shared some medical details around
21 weeks when we decided to put our trust and baby girl in God's hands and her name around
22 weeks {Charlotte}. Due to the state of our pregnancy, we became labeled as "high risk" and began seeing a specialist every couple weeks for monitoring, measurements, and tests. Through all of this, I clung to whatever normalcy I could find and continued my
photo-a-day project to find some appreciation of the little things in life.
September - If I was to describe my feelings this month in one word, I would probably say it was "hopeful". We had met with a few different doctors concerning our little girl's condition and while we knew it was serious, we also hoped that God would fix her little body if that was His plan. Notable happenings for this month include: sharing a little bit about what was
going through my head at the moment; participating in a
scarf swap; posting my photo-a-day recaps; and attending two baby showers out of town for Charlotte + I {posted about in December}.
October - Another somewhat quiet month on the blog, with the exception of photo-a-day posts, pregancy updates, and reviews. One exception was where I felt more hopeful in September, the feeling of hopelessness surrounding the pregnancy overcame my thoughts in October, which I shared about around
32 weeks. To take my mind off worrying, I started a weekly post called Friday Favorites {I featured
Lisa Leonard &
HelloBee this month}, which share some blogs & sites that have become must-reads for me throughout the years.
November - More pregnancy updates, reviews, Friday Favorites {
iHeart Organizing,
Influenster,
I Love You More Than Carrots,
Jonathan David Photography, and
The Four Gift Rule}, and photo-a-day recaps this month. We also shared Charlotte's scheduled birthday - 12.12.12 - around
36 weeks, after we were transferred up to Legacy Emanuel in Portland, OR for the remainder of our pregnancy. And due to the nature of the month, I also shared why I was most
thankful this year...
December - Also known as the month we've been waiting for! I started out the month posting about the amazing
baby showers that were thrown for us over the last couple months, as well as a Friday Favorite {
The Dough Will Rise Again} and finishing out my year-long photo-a-day project. Then before we knew it, we had made it to
39 weeks & the day finally came that we would finally be meeting our precious baby girl.
Charlotte René Grable was born on 12.12.12 at 2:35pm, but sadly, we had to say goodbye to her far too soon on 12.21.12 at around 11:30am, only 9 short days after we met her. I tried to put our
feelings into words and find
meaning for why this all happened, but a lot of if is still in my heart, which is, honestly, where it might stay for the unforeseeable future... However, I did want to document Charlotte's short, but love-filled life, so you can read about her
here &
here.
This year was tough. As I mentioned above, we experienced such a range of emotions this year that I'm not sure how many I have left {except for indescribable sadness and desire to hold Charlotte in my arms again}. As 2012 comes to an end, I pray that I never forget this year and what it brought us, but that I am also able to move forward and see Charlotte in everything beautiful ahead of us.
