#1 Tucker and Adelyn
Of course our #1 blessing this year was the SAFE and HEALTHY birth of the cutest and sweetest twins in the world. Tucker and Adelyn fulfilled our hearts' desires and have filled our lives with SO much JOY and LOVE. Since their arrival, we have not stopped thanking God for His perfect plan in our lives, for taking His time to make them so amazing, and for blessing us with parenthood. Everyday is filled with love, kisses, smiles, laughter, joy, prayers, more love, and God's grace. We can't imagine what our life was like before them and are so thankful that we have many years to come with these two!
#2 Master's Degree
A major accomplishment that I was able to experience in 2013 was the completion of my master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction. I really started my master's on a whim after quitting coaching and finding myself at home alone a lot while Derek was traveling. Instead of being sad about not having babies, I decided to start my master's and figured I would complete it sometime while I was staying home with babies. Thankfully, in God's perfect timing, I was able to complete my last assignments while on bed rest with the twins. I am so glad that I was able to finish this degree, even if I won't use it for awhile, because I have absolutely no idea how I would do it now that I am chasing two crazies around!
#3 New Job for Derek (and me!)
A significant blessing in all of our lives is Derek's new job at Miles. We prayed and prayed for Derek's job situation for a long time. We felt that it was time for a change, but didn't want to be taken away from San Angelo or our home. After several failed applications, interviews, and pursuing other career paths, the job at Miles fell into place so quickly and effortlessly that it can only be attributed to God's hand in our life! Derek loves his new job and we have fallen in love with the Miles school district. We are thankful that they have accepted our family, that Derek is able to coach and teach at a smaller school, and that we hopefully have a great school for Tucker and Adelyn to attend in the future!
I am also SO BLESSED to have a husband that works so hard everyday so that I may stay home with my babies! After resigning from teaching, our family was blessed with an opportunity for me to teach part-time. While I wish that I was home full-time, I am so thankful for the extra income that it provides, the health insurance for me and the twins, and the blessing of my mom to watch our babies while I am at work. It may not be my ideal situation, but I truly believe that God has blessed us with this opportunity this year. This job has helped tremendously in completing moment #5 (see below!)...
#4 Reading through the Bible
Ok this one may sound weird to some of you, but I truly feel like this is a big accomplishment. As part of my mom's bible study, I have been reading the chronological bible on a daily basis. While sometimes I have to read several days at once, I have kept up! Which means tonight I will finish reading the entire bible! I have NEVER done this before and I am very proud to know that I have read the entire bible all the way through! I highly recommend this task to others and especially like the chronological lay-out. It makes the bible come to life in a whole new way! I am super thankful for the Mom's bible study group for accepting and supporting me as I struggle to figure this whole new mom thing out!
#5 DEBT-FREE
This one is SO EXCITING!!! As of a couple of weeks ago, Derek and I are officially DEBT-FREE!!! About 4 years ago, we attended Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and put his principals and ideas into practice in our lives. Our main goal was to be able to get out of debt, pay for in-vitro, and allow me to stay home with our future children. After four hard years of work, I am so proud of being able to say that we are debt free. Since FPU, we paid off Derek's truck, went to Jamaica, paid for in-vitro, and paid off the very last of Derek's student loans to ACU. God has been so faithful and provided so much during this process, especially during the in-vitro process. We are thankful to be able to enter 2014 with NO DEBT and are looking forward to saving for the twins' college now that Derek's is paid for. Praise God!
So what is in store for the Schoen family in 2014???
I pray that God continues to work daily in our lives in this year to come. 2014 looks to be another exciting year for our sweet little family. We are looking forward to celebrating the twin's FIRST birthday and my (gasp) 30th birthday! Derek's basketball season is continuing and we are hoping for a great one. Derek will have surgery sometime this year on his ears and we are looking forward to implanting our precious frozen embryos sometime in the near future! Who knows...we could be celebrating another pregnancy at this time next year!
One thing we have learned for sure is that we will set all of our plans aside and are praying to allow God to work freely in our lives. God's plans always far exceed our own and we pray that our family may glorify Him in the year to come.
May God bless you and yours in 2014!
"May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace." 2 Timothy 1:2
Enjoy the pictures that the WONDERFUL Jessica Boling took of our families this December!
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