thinking about my future and glancing at the past

Every now and then, I have days when I dwell on and off about my career in the near future. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a bad thing because lately I haven’t been letting it consume me. Instead I have been using it as an opportunity to seek the Lord for more direction and clarity in this area of my life. In order for me to receive God’s blessings, I need to always seek His kingdom and righteousness first. (Matthew 6:33) One verse in my devotional which related to my life was Mark 11:24 “whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Sometimes I go through phases where I don’t want to bother God with my petty dreams. But then I remember that He is the one that gave me these dreams.  I will continue to place the Lord first, be more consistent with my prayers and putting the effort into making these dreams a reality.

The one thing I know for certain is that I do want to have a business that is linked to health and cooking for people, but I’m not entirely sure how I’ll get there, which is where the Lord’s wisdom comes in. Ideally, I see myself working from home as a private chef, continuing to blog and endeavoring in small but exciting and creative cooking gigs. But presently, I thoroughly enjoy being a homemaker while Michael goes to work, and I understand there is no rush for me to work right now, and that I have the choice to wait until we are both settled down into a house of our own. Things will fall into place sooner or later.

Read more after the jump.

It’s amazing to think about how many things took place from the beginning of 2013 to present time. Here’s a bit of an overview:

1. Getting a bilateral hip replacement. I had my hip operation two days after my sister and brother in-laws engagement party which was the first wedding related event of a very weddingful year. I remember I kept thinking about the surgery all night long and freaking myself out. It was my first major surgery and I was terrified because of the strict visiting hours. Fortunately I was able to see Michael every day since he was working in New York at the time, and my family made sure they visited too.  Despite the 2 blood transfusion and getting very sick from the pain killers I was on, the surgery went very well and I was able to fully recover in less than six months. 

2. We got engaged! Michael and I got engaged on February 9, 2013 which was only a couple weeks after I had my hips replaced! (You can read about our engagement story here if you're interested.) When spring rolled around the events seemed to come faster! In March, Michael moved into an apartment in New Brunswick and Michael's sister Jennifer got married to her now husband Jason. In April we traveled as a family to Puerto rico for my grandmother's 80th birthday party. To close springtime on a high note we had our engagement party in May with our close friends and family.

3. Aria's bridal shower, bachelorette party and wedding. Being Aria's sister and maid of honor was a great experience! After she got over the initial annoyance of me getting engaged shortly after her, Aria was a very pleasant bride-to-be and she was also really helpful when my wedding day came closer. Because we are sister's who share we used the same florist and photographer! I enjoyed being a part of her shower and the wonderful spa day with her bridemaids aka my big sisters. Her and David are going to be great parents (!!!!)

4. Wedding planning, getting married and all the events that came with it. 

My bridal shower was in my Titi Shelly and Tio Robert's backyard in early September, and all the Jane Austen inspired decorations were created by my parents and grandparents. You can read all about it here. Early on in our engagement, Michael and I decided that we wanted our wedding to reflect who we were as a Christian couple, and it to be a celebration of our marriage. The day of the wedding turned out beautiful, great weather, delicious food, nothing bad happened and we were surrounded by the people we loved! The day after the wedding we flew to California where we spent a very relaxing week in Sonoma Valley. We visited Healdsburgh, San Francisco, Jenner Beach and visited Napa Valley the day before our flight home. It was definitely a wonderful location for us to escape and not worry about being anywhere but with each other. 

While oodles happened and changed, I am very happy and blessed that I shared them all with my husband Michael. He has really helped me through this scary transition and I can honestly say I haven’t been anxious in over two weeks. There's still a lot of things that need to get done but the good news is that we got pre-approved for a loan this week, and are getting a puppy on the 30th! As I type this, I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I know that I can move on and continue to trust in God to lead us both in the right direction which is very exciting.

-Jessica