Taylor

My goal in writing our family recap is to inform without making anyone ill.  I hope it works.  Merry Christmas! 

As luck would have it, Travis and I are not that smart.  It turns out you don’t have to be that smart to be an adult.  This is very good news for us.  Another revelation we’ve had this past year is that God will lay abundant opportunities in your lap once in awhile.  If you have enough faith to jump into them . . . you will discover you are even less smart than you had supposed.  A thought that should inspire fear, but instead-because of God’s great goodness, mercy, and perfectly planned pathways, inspires great hope and excitement.  We have looked at one another and thought, “What on earth are we doing?” more in this past year than in any other.  I am happy to say that our electricity is still on, our children are mostly clothed, and we do eat some variation of food every day.  Life feels peaceful and abundant.

Interesting checklist of random events this past year:

Buy a business: check.  Remodel said business: check.  Move to Salem: check.  Hire new employees....over and over: check.  Situate Corbyn and Ty in school: check.  Find a place to teach fitness classes: check.  Get callings in our new ward: check.   Convince our new ward that we aren’t completely crazy: working on it.  Teach Jay that make-up is mostly for girls: also working on it.  Ask gigantic, almost consuming favors from family members: check.  See the Lord’s merciful hand: check.  Cry as members of the ward flood in the doors to come to help us our last day of the remodel when our world seemed to be crashing down: check.  Laugh when Jay makes up new names for Mom and Dad: check. (For information sake: mommy momo-Daddy doodoo.  I’m not trading mine.)  Keep a dead crab in my garage because I can’t bear to throw Ty’s prized possession away: check.  Race in my first triathlon without crying or saying one naughty word (or drowning): check.  Sign Travis up for a soccer league: check. Teach Jay how to make a sheep noise: baaaaaa.  Teach Ty how to make his own bagel for breakfast: check.  Give Corbyn his own room: check.  Have a super fun surgery: check.  Pay for big kid insurance: ouch.  Finally start a retirement fund: chhhheck.  Watch Corbyn play basketball even though he wanted to play flag football: check.  Watch Corbyn make his first layup: check.  Pretend that we could do any of the above without the word of God forever present in our minds and our rock, our Savior Jesus Christ?  Not checking that off. 

We would still be struggling through school if Heavenly Father did not mercifully lift Travis up on the hard days (weeks, years), we would still be wondering where to move, and what to do with our life if it weren’t for divine direction.  All things good in life have come to us because God has seen fit to bring it.  Whether good or hard awaits us this next year . . . we know we will have our faith, our Savior, and His abundantly merciful plan to guide us through it.   May all our dear friends have the same peace, especially during this season—where His love fills every lit roadway and every little stocking.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Daddy doo doo, Heather, Corbyn, Ty, and Jay Taylor