It’s a great time to reflect on the year that has been and we’re loooong overdue a blog post! Now to try to finish this before 2021 begins!
I think it was at our New Years Eve prayer gathering a year ago that God spoke the words, ‘Divine Reset’ to me, and then He reminded me of them again one evening in March as I was lying in bed and as the Covid 19 virus was just beginning to affect our day to day lives. It’s something we have pondered and wondered at over the past year as the months have unfolded and the year been so unlike any other.
For us the first lock down in March came after a bumpy beginning to the year when we had Katherine in hospital for a week with pneumonia. Having the girls home all day every day and having to contend with online schooling (when all the girls are at the age where they are not yet independent in their work but need constant supervision and help) was exhausting and stretching, but we were blessed with the most amazing weather for week after week after week – truly I believe it was a blessing from God. Although it was a challenging few months (William was still able to go to work so he worked early morning until mid-afternoon) it was also SO lovely not to have to be anywhere or to have the pressures of time constraints. The girls spent a lot of time in the garden (which we discovered was double the size we could see but incredibly overgrown in the top half) and it was our major project during those months to clear the top half of our garden and plant vegetables (we even discovered there was an almost fully intact greenhouse up there!).
The 3 months of the first lockdown were also wonderful for getting to know our neighbors (having only moved to this house just before Christmas) and it has been one of the highlights of being here during this year as there is a great sense of community in our road and people looking out for each other. In spite of feeling for the first month or so that it was a huge mistake moving to this house, I’ve been humbled to see the hand of God in our move and became very sure that we are exactly where He intended us to be. Being only a few minutes walk from the girls school and less than 10 minutes walk to church (& work for William) has been more perfect than we could have imagined, and we were all the more thankful for this when the girls did go back to school in June but Abigail finished at lunch time, Katherine at 3pm and Audrey at 3:20pm!! What a blessing to be so close!
Over the summer holidays we were able to visit Granny (my mum) over in Cheltenham for some days and had a wonderful meeting up with my younger brother too, and to travel up to Yorkshire for a couple of weeks of exploring and visiting friends. We were all the more appreciative the countryside and the time away from Bromley having been so confined for the lockdown months. In October my mum had a bad fall and broke her femur which resulted in a couple of weeks in hospital. I was thankful that the covid restrictions at that time still allowed me to be able to go over to visit twice, and that the girls had been able to see her in the summer. Although she is doing much better and is now back in her home after time convalescing with my brother, it makes you value life all the more and to realize how fragile it is.
Thankfully the girls were all able to return to school in September – Abigail into year 3, Audrey into year 2 and Katherine into year 1 – and apart from Abigail having to isolate for a week because of a Covid case in her class, the girls have been able to be at school full-time. Praise God!! And so far the girls have settled well and are enjoying their teachers and the work. All got good reports and are thankfully doing well. They are so different from one another and at home we see the good, the bad and the ugly, so as parents we often wonder how they are really getting on at school… so it was encouraging that they did get good reports!! Katherine keeps her teachers on their toes though… she hasn’t escaped from school yet but has from the classroom a number of times and a couple of days she went on a hiding adventure before she even got to her classroom in the morning!!
Personally I’ve found this last half-term has been a bit of a challenge… I think when the girls went back to school after half-term (during which, incidentally, we had a wonderful week away in Devon), I was home with Ruth all the time and hit a patch of wondering what on earth my life was about. Did it really come down to entertaining (and taming) a 3 year old all day every day? Wasn’t there more to my purpose and meaning than that (and obviously taking care of the other 3 & William too)?… I lost perspective and vision and couldn’t see much beyond the day to day toddler tantrums and general exhaustion of 4 kids (and Katherine having great sleep challenges). I’d also been diagnosed with a cavernoma (a benign vascular brain tumor) in September and though I don’t have symptoms I had to battle through some fears and runaway thoughts which were heightened in the midst of the loss of vision/perspective. Thank God for the prayers of friends that helped me to see again. And we thank God that Ruth will also be starting nursery in January for 2 mornings a week, allowing just a little breathing space!! Well, maybe…
This evening the government announced that primary schools in this borough will not be starting back as planned… so we will be back to home schooling for at least a couple of weeks from Monday… aaagh! At least this time we have some experience behind us and will be praying over the next couple of days to get a clear plan in place to hopefully have productive and peaceful days! This time we don’t have long sunny days though… maybe God will bless us with snow instead!! We’re not yet sure whether Ruth will start nursery or whether that too will be pushed back.
In all of this uncertainty and the challenges we find ourselves in the midst of, we know that we need Jesus more than ever and that clinging to Him, seeking Him and trusting Him through these seasons is the most vital thing in our life. As we’re faced more and more with the reality that pretty much everything is out of our control we are seeking to come before our God to hear what He is saying and to know what He is requiring of us. We are also coming into our last year of William’s role at BTC, so we are continuing to seek God for direction beyond this year – as yet we have no idea whether we will be staying in England or returning to the US or indeed going anywhere else in the world – we are trusting that God will lead us to the center of His will and we continue to lay down our lives and our will in any matter of the future. He truly does have the best plan for us – we’ve seen it over and again, even in the last year, and very much so in the almost 2 years that we have been here in the UK.
Hopefully I’ll post some photos too from 2020 (though I take a ridiculous number of photos so I’ll have to limit them) and all that remains is to send you much love and to wish you a very happy New Year and every blessing for 2021. Trust Jesus…He’ll get you through!
Pursuing Purpose 