Hello!

 

So, welcome! Hi! I'm glad you're here! As I was saying on the old blog...what a few weeks it has been. It's beyond impossible to sew together right and accurate words. Every time I try, I prick myself on the needle. It's not an exaggeration when I say this month has been the most difficult of my entire life. Manley and I both managed to take on way, way more work than we could handle. Why I thought I could realistically paint 50 house portraits in a week escapes me now (but they did get finished, magically, and are some of my favorites yet!). For a while there, sleep became a dream and a memory.  

We found out that the adoption we've been working on for the past two years just senselessly fell apart. The news of the school shooting in Connecticut shook my threadbare soul to the core. I cried so many tears in the past two weeks that I began to wonder where they all come from. And in the midst of all this darkness... joy. One of my best friends turned thirty and got engaged all in the same breath. Another best friend had a birthday. Another best friend has a birthday today! Big exams were passed. Holiday parties. Celebration!!! Hannah made a dark chocolate almond cake! There were tables to set, brunches to throw, gifts to knit. Trees to dress, Christmas dinners to plan, Advent candles to light.

I have clung to our little Advent wreath with all my heart this year...as we light each candle, I am reminded so powerfully of the hope that is light shining in bitter darkness. Break forth, O beauteous heavenly light, and usher in the morning already!

I have never been so ready for Christmas.