Hello Friend, 

Do me a favor, take a deep breath in, and then exhale slowly while counting to ten…go ahead, I’ll wait.

Do you feel like you needed that as much as I did?! It is the holiday season and things are getting crazy busy. To be honest this year has been just plain crazy for me. It feels like I have been on a rollercoaster ride that just won’t quit. I have to keep reminding myself to just stop, breathe, and be grateful. This has been a hard year but God has continued to be faithful through it all. I have experienced my health deteriorate and recover. I have experienced relationships fade and others flourish. I have experienced some of my lowest lows and some pretty good highs. Through it all God has been faithful to sustain me, provide the support that I needed, and gave me the strength to walk forward through it all. I am grateful to Him for all these things.

I couldn’t have ever imagined when this year started that my sister would also be going through her biggest health struggle this year. She has fought breast cancer like a champ! Both her double mastectomy and reconstruction surgeries went very well. She’s still healing from her reconstruction surgery, but she is getting stronger everyday. She has shown such resilience and courage through it all. Thank you everyone who has lifted her and her family up in your prayers. We are praying and believing that this will be her one and only cancer fight, and that she will continue to remain healthy for the rest of her days.

When I look back on this year it just all seems like one big hassle. My plans for my future were interrupted in the most frustrating ways possible, but in this God reminded me of something. God sending His son into the world wasn’t a smoothly executed plan by his earthly parents standards. Mary was an unwed mother. Joseph was betrayed by the woman he loved (so he thought). Joseph was called to Bethlehem for census right when his wife was due to give birth. Mary gave birth in a dirty stable. NONE of Jesus coming to Earth went as Mary and Joseph may have planned. The whole thing was a big hassle. BUT God had a plan. God provided for their every need. Maybe not in the way they expected, but He did. God knew this was how his son would come to Earth to seek and save the lost. In Jesus’s birth God showed that He was faithful even in the hassle that Mary and Joseph experienced. In looking at their story I am reminded that those interruptions and hassles in life are just God’s way of getting us to stop, breathe, look to Him and remember the things we should be grateful for. I can promise you God is working on your behalf even if you don’t see it and even if you don’t feel it. He’s proven that to me so many times. This year was no exception. Know this, He cares for you and in His time His plan will happen. Just as He planned it. So be grateful for those hassles and interruptions. His plans are always so much better than ours.

I know I’ve said it before, but thank you for continuing to follow my story and for keeping me and my family in your prayers this year. You have helped me in more ways than you can even know. I pray that as this year draws to a close that you will find time to stop, breathe, look to the Lord, and be grateful for everything that you have been blessed with because you have been a blessing to me. 

May you have a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

God bless and much love, Tiffany