December 31st.

I think if there were ever a day that were suitable for reflection, December 31st would be it.
The last day of the year makes me want to slow down for a second and ask myself, what am I doing with my life?
Am I making it count? Is anything I'm doing going to make a dent in eternity?

By the grace of God, there are a few things I can look back on and know that, yes, they are making a difference in the kingdom.  Conversations had.  Meals made.  Gifts given.  Prayers prayed.
He is working through me and there are many days and moments that I know have not been wasted.  They have been spent well, poured out to the last drop.

And then there are those other days/moments that I have to give the "nope...not gonna matter" award to.
And those are the ones that I want to work on diminishing.  Time used poorly.  Oppurtunities passed up.  Idle thoughts...prayers not prayed.  Too much time on one thing...not enough time on another.

And I know the truth of this - that I will be spending the 31st of December every year until I'm so old that I don't even know what day it is assessing the previous year and asking myself what I could've and should've done differently, and I know that I will never feel like I have arrived.  I know that.  I don't want to ever feel like that because if I do, I will have arrived in the wrong place.

I do, however, want to keep asking Jesus how He wants to use this life.
He paid a very high price for it... He gets to decide how it is spent and poured out.

I think it might have been Elisabeth Elliot that said something about how there is always enough time in the day to do the will of God.
That must mean that if I feel strapped for time, then I'm trying to do too many things - some of which are not God's will. 
ouch.

This next year, I want to grow in being able to discern what the Lord's will is for each of the moments of my day.  That seems so elementary as I write it out. Like, "welcome to being a Christian - this is the very first thing you should learn"...but I'm so far from mastering that skill.

Praise the Lord for His grace - praise the Lord that He is not finished with His work in me - and praise the Lord that He is the One who is even allowing me to realize that there are still big things that I need to work on.
What a faithful God.

The Smith Family

This sweet family met me on a cooooold November morning in downtown Kennesaw.  Don't worry that there was some kind of event that required all the roads to be blocked and us to have to go on a scavenger hunt to find each other, but nevertheless, we did.  I had a lovely time getting to know precious little Leanna and Adelyn.  Are they not adorable?

My favorite.

Don't you think Leanna will treasure this picture of her and her daddy when she's older?

"Hey girl, whatchu doin over there?"
"Nothin. Just spying on mommy and daddy."

Now if you think Amy looks familiar, it's because she's Jennifer's sister. Preciate the reccomendation Jen!

Adrian - Newborn

Meet Adrian. My precious little newborn nephew.  He's actually almost a year old now, but I think he was about 4 days old in these pictures.  I'm convinced there's nothing in the world as sweet as a brand-new little, tiny person. 

Caris

This little blue-eyed-darling is my precious neice, Caris.  She's 7 months old in these pictures.  She came over for a little hang out/babysitting time at our apartment and I couldn't resist a photoshoot on the back porch. 

Turns out that our ugly outdoor cushions match her eyes perfectly!

Merry Christmas at the Whittinghills!

I wanted to post this the week of Christmas, but we all know how busy those 7 little days are.  Presents to finish sewing, presents to wrap, people to see, parties to go to...much too much fun to be had.  So even though it's two days past Christmas, my decorations are still up and I'm going to give a little tour of our festive home.  

I got this branch idea from the fabulous Christi Dillon who I'm pretty sure got the idea from Pinterest.  I'm probably going to keep it up all year round...with different accents for each season, of course. 

And this would be our lovely tree. It's fake, but with a few little Balsam and Cedar candles burning, you pretty much can't tell.

I made these at a Pinterest Craft party (doesn't that sound so fun? It was.) and next year I'll probably have a whole forest of them. All different sizes and textures. 

This is in our foyer.  I'm still on the lookout for the perfect entryway table, but for now, my brother-in-law's grandpa's antique trunk is working perfectly.

And this is our Whittinghill memory wreath, or something like that.  I can't figure out quite what I want to call it, but basically ever year we'll glue a few little objects onto it that represent the big things that happened that year. For instance, 2010- marriage, 2011- Levi, etc.

And our front door.  The wreath is from Hobby Lobby last year.

And this is our precious Nativity.  Someone gave it to us as a wedding present - isn't that such a great idea?  It's something we sure wouldn't have had money for, but I love it and am so glad to have one! The trees are from Walmart - I think about $4 on Christmas clearance last year. 

Thanks for stopping by our home :) Maybe next year I'll have my act together and post pictures before Christmas. 

Vermont

Part of the reason I wanted to really get this blog up and running was to be able to keep our families and friends updated on what the Lord is doing in our lives and where He is leading us - especially when we don't live around here...someday.  

We have sensed that the Lord might be calling us to New England (someday eventually) for almost a year now.  Our dear friends, Ben and Tiffany Presten, got called to plant a church in Vermont a little over a year ago.  

I remember the day Ben (my Ben) and I were sitting at Starbucks with Ben and Tiff.  Ben P. was saying how he was just itching to be in ministry but they didn't know where the Lord was calling them. He said he was praying the other day and told the Lord that he would go anywhere, and asked for the Lord to make it clear.  

Almost jokingly, he said that "Vermont" popped in his head.  

We all kind of laughed and completely dismissed it as a non-option.  Who even lives in Vermont? Why go there? Surely the Lord would rather send them to some dangerous and remote place..like India, or Thailand. 

But sure enough, over the course of 2010, the Lord clarified in almost unbelieveable ways, His will for Ben and Tiffany to move to the small town of Wilmington, Vermont and plant Valleytown church.  I wish I had time to tell the story of the clear ways the Lord spoke to them, but I'll save that for another time. 

Bottom line, their house is on the market, they have packed up or sold (mostly sold!) all their possessions and will buckle in their two toddler boys and 3 wk old little girl and drive 18 hours to Vermont just as soon as it sells...(anyone looking for a beautiful home in Snellville???).

Aaaaaand....we might be going with them. 

I thought I would be documenting our journey up to New England over the course of a few years because I thought it would take that long for us to end up there.  And it still might.  But it also might take only a few months.  

We keep thinking about all these reasons why we shouldn't go now, like how we have a 3 month old baby, and we are extremely attached to our families, and how Ben is smack in the middle of seminary. 

But if his credits are about to transfer to Southern seminary, we just might start raising support to move up there and be apart of Valleytown church.  And we still will have a tiny baby and be extremely attached to our families, but God is doing something big in New England.  If you haven't noticed, His heart has been in New England since our nation began.  And now He is bringing life to a dead region in amazing ways.  And we want to be where He is, working where He is working, and living right in the center of His will.  

And I'm totally freaking out slightly nervous about it, but I also feel a strange peace about whatever the Lord's timing is.  This is not a definite thing at all.  We are diligently praying about it and looking into all the options. The Lord may want us to stay here a few more years and we would be perfectly fine with that, but we are just trying to be open and obedient to the possibility that He might want us up there a little bit sooner. 

So please excuse me while I go laugh and cry a little bit about the possibility about packing up this house that I just got settled into and packing up our little 3 month old and moving all the way across the country to a state that touches CANADA to bring the gospel to a group of people that would prefer to be left alone. Crying, for all the obvious reasons, and laughing because I'm so humbled that the Lord would invite us to be apart of His sovereign plan to draw people to Himself from all corners of the earth, especially people who currently are totally disinterested/closed off to Him.  He is so good. 

Remember, it might not be the soon, but we feel pretty sure that it will happen sometime.  We'll keep you posted. 

The Coetzer Family

Adrian, Jen, and Sutton (cool name, huh?) are the sweetest little family who I think made the cutest pictures! This little guy was a trooper - for being 16 months old and not really getting a good nap, he sure was a photogenic little guy :) 

Isn't that the sweetest little smile?

 This is definitely one of my faves :)

The Hennessy Family

The Hennessy family braved their photoshoot on the very first actually cold day of December! We literally were all numb, but they were troopers!

I think I vote this as y'all's Christmas card picture!

Amanda requested a picture like this because she and her husband posed like this on their wedding day - eleven years ago!