Looking back, we had some really great moments in 2013. We also had some REALLY, REALLY hard moments. Moments full of disappointment. Moments full of sadness. Moments (LOTS OF THEM) filled with sickness. But overall, God has blessed us. The struggles, the trials? They have been hard. But I know ultimately God is using the difficult times to mold us, to draw us closer to Him. We aren’t promised that life will be easy. We are promised that He will not leave us or forsake us.
So, what did 2013 hold for us?
January and February are when we were first attacked by sickies. Ava and Reed were constantly back and forth with illnesses, including ear infections, burned bottoms from antibiotics and even the flu! 
February was also an exciting month as we found out that we would be getting three nieces/nephews in the fall!!!!
March was a good month in terms of being healthy and we had a fun weekend trip to Oklahoma City over Spring Break and we also celebrated Easter!
April had some good moments:
The weather warmed up and we started getting to eat dinners outside.
Zach and I had a fun date night!
Zach celebrated his 29th birthday!!!
April also had some tough days. Lots of pain, lots of tears and lots of asking God why. On a particularly hard day, Zach’s school held a special assembly where he was awarded an area wide Teacher of the Month award! God meets us when we need Him.
The end of April was also the first time I felt Reed’s cyst. I had no idea what it was at that point and after a particularly stressful situation regarding his pediatrician’s office, we had to take him to a walk in clinic where they told us it was just an infected lymph node.
May found us with Ava having another illness. It was short lived thankfully.
My kids grew up over night.
Ava had her dance “recical” as she still calls it.
The kids had their last day of school
My parents sold and we said goodbye to my childhood home. My mom also joined my dad in OKC. This was a very hard time for me. 
At the beginning of June, Reed’s cyst began swelling again. We saw our pediatrician and we first heard they words “thyroglossal duct cyst”. We scheduled an appointment for him to be seen at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in July.
We enjoyed the slower pace of summer days.
Ava went to Oklahoma City and while she was there, they had a tornado go through and she spent the evening hiding out in some underground tunnels in the downtown area. I was happy to get my hands on her when we got home.
We celebrated Father’s Day!
Ava took swimming lessons!
In July, we celebrated the 4th!
Reed had his first appointment at Arkansas Children’s Hospital where he was officially diagnosed with a thyroglossal duct cyst. We scheduled surgery for the beginning of August.
We went to the beach!!!!
At the end of July, Reed’s cyst became very infected. We had to go to ACH to have it drained and it postponed his surgery. 
We moved right into August and Reed had his first hair cut.
Ava got hand, foot, and mouth.
The kids went back to school. 
I celebrated my 30th birthday!
On August 28th, Reed finally had his surgery.
In September, we celebrated birthdays early! 
We had a follow up appointment for Reed at ACH. Later that day when we got home, we were hit from behind. We’re still dealing with the drama that came from the girl saying she didn’t hit me. The weekend after that happened, we went to OKC for my birthday present. Zach got me tickets to see Wicked!
Ava turned 5 and we celebrated with her friends at a fun party at the park downtown with a ferris wheel and carousel!
At the end of September, Reed’s incision from surgery became infected. He went back to ACH and we got a medicine and were told to come back November 1 for a follow up.
The beginning of October was marked with another plague of sickness as we all suffered from a tummy bug.
Reed turned TWO!
I got to be there to meet my sweet niece the day she was born! 
We took Reed to his first movie!
And we ended the month celebrating Halloween!
On November 1st, Reed and I traveled to ACH for his follow up appointment. At this appointment we were told that his cyst had returned and that he needed a 2nd surgery, which we scheduled for December 30th.
We had family photos taken!
Zach and I celebrated seven years of marriage!
We celebrated Thanksgiving with Zach’s family and we got to meet another of our new nieces! 
We traveled to St. Louis to meet our last niece and celebrate her baptism!
The first week of December, Reed fell at school and bumped his head pretty hard so we took a trip to the ER. 
Then we had a big ice/snow storm come through that let the kids out of school for two days.
We made Christmas memories, like riding the Holiday Express!
We met Santa Claus! 
Ava won the WWJD award!
And we had many wonderful Christmas celebrations!!!!
2013 is coming to a close for us with Reed’s 2nd surgery happening this morning at 9:10 a.m. We are hopeful that this will be the last operation we will need for this and that he will be healed wholly as we go into 2014.
As I said, while it was a tough year with many trials, we’ve had many happy happy times this year that I wouldn’t trade. Even the bad times I wouldn’t trade, as they’ve brought us to this point, and this is right where we are supposed to be. I never imagined 2013 would go like it did, and I have no idea what 2014 has in store for us, but I welcome it and whatever comes our way with open arms.
Happy New Year!
