Cheers to 2014

2014 was a year of blessings, fear, sadness, faith, hope, prayer, miracles, and tremendous amounts of love. It was a year that reminded us of the important things in life; one that drove home the fact that you can't truly enjoy the sun without a little bit of rain.

We started the year by finding out about Baby Gill #2 in January, and announced the news 12 weeks later. In the spring, I suffered through my fair share of sickness, and tried to adapt to growing a human while taking care of a toddler at the same time. We bought a new camper and made lasting family memories over the summer with trips both near and far. My belly grew almost as fast as Marleigh did, and we geared up for her second birthday in September; only to have our world shaken by my mom's ruptured brain aneurysm. We spent the entire month of September with knots in our stomachs -- going from tears of sadness and grief to happiness, back to sadness, and eventually to happiness again. We visited the hospital every day for 26 days, limited to 20 minute visits in the ICU and cherishing every single second of them. On September 29th, Mimi came home and we all breathed a sigh of relief as we rejoiced with happy tears. October finally arrived and I shifted my focus back to the precious baby growing inside of me as we anxiously awaited his birth. One week later, On October 8th, Henry Russell Gill was born - a bright beacon of light into our lives. In late October, we found a house we loved and our offer got accepted. We adjusted to life as a family of four. We survived "Snowvember" in Buffalo with seven feet of snow and went a little stir-crazy being snowed in at home for five days, while secretly loving the quality time it allowed us to have together. We spent Thanksgiving spending time with our families and being extra thankful this year for the blessings God has given us.  We celebrated Christmas not one, not two, but three times and tried our best to get into the holiday spirit with our move only a few days away. And now here I sit, our entire house packed away in boxes around me as we prepare to say goodbye to these familiar four walls. Our closing is scheduled for tomorrow at noon, and I can't think of a more exciting way to close out 2014 than moving into our new home together! 

Here's to hoping 2015 brings more sunshine than showers. Cheers!