2016: a Stafford review

2016 was a good year.  A challenging year, but good, nevertheless.

In January we took a trip to Van Buren, Arkansas, with April's parents.  We also got pregnant.

In February, we found out we were pregnant, entertained at a local Seniors' Valentines Banquet, and our church celebrated its 25th Anniversary and had its first float in the LoveFest Parade in many years.  April judged the baking competition at the LoveFest, and one of our members won the grand prize for her cheesecakes (April was one of many judges, so no bias there).  I also started the big adventure of substitute teaching at the elementary school

In March, we took a spring break trip to Ardmore, Oklahoma, to visit April's parents, and started seeing our midwife--because we were pregnant.

In April, we celebrated April's birthday with a small party attended by special friends, attended a painting party for another special friend where we painted for the first time, and held a revival at our church with our friend Evangelist Rod Vincent.

In May, we hosted the community 5th Sunday Sing and honored three graduating High School Seniors at church.

In June, Papa and Nanna came for a visit.  Conlan was baptized in a blow-up pool at church, which then moved to our front yard where we soaked on many wonderful evenings.  We celebrated Joe's second birthday, my mother's sixty-fifty birthday, three years of marriage, and were gifted with a little getaway trip to a nearby resort where we spent a lot of time in the pool and got sunburned.

In July, we celebrated Independence Day with steaks and fireworks at my mother's house, built a privacy fence around the back of our house (also known as the Joe Containment Area) with the help of good friends, and generally tried to stay in out of the heat.

In August, Papa and Nanna came back for Conlan's birthday celebration, Conlan started kindergarten, and the church celebrated our (nearly) four years of ministry here with a huge service led by Pastor Jackson and friends from St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church of Houston.

In September, we went to the beach for Labor Day and came back with some pretty severe sun burns and a lot of good memories.  We also celebrated my birthday with steaks and my favorite movie.

In October, after nine months of anticipation and eighteen hours of labor, Stephen Andrew Stafford made his landing in Palestine, Texas.  10 pounds, 22 inches long.  I cooked for an area missions banquet, and poisoned no one.  We also traveled down to St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church of Houston for a joint celebration of the Lord, and I got to preach!

In November, we held our annual missions convention.  There was an election, and I was elected president...of the local PTO.  In other news, Donald Trump became 45th President of the United States and I became a published author with the release of a book 15 years in the making--Visions of the End:  Daniel's Perfect Picture of God's Master Plan (available from me for $11+$2 S&H, or from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers for a little more).  After a busy year, we took two Sundays off and went to Oklahoma, spending Thanksgiving with April's parents and the latter part of the week with April's best friend Courtney and family.

And finally, in December, we entertained at an area ministers' meeting, I expanded my substitute teaching career to the High School, we went to a Christmas parade and fair in Conroe, got a new-to-us Honda Odyssey, saw the new Star Wars movie Rogue One, and celebrated Christmas with our families here at home.

We ate a lot of good food, watched a lot of good movies and assorted TV series' on DVD, met a lot of new friends, reunited with some old ones, found a lot of long-lost relatives, aggravated a lot of people on FB, sweated out an exciting Presidential election, stirred up a little trouble, comforted some of the afflicted, afflicted some of the comfortable, and in most ways enjoyed life!  We were busy, but we are happy.  Most of all--we survived!

Looking forward to 2017, we realize nothing is going to slow down for us.  The world is spinning at an incredible speed, but gravity keeps us grounded.  We have a roof over our head, clothes on our back, food in our bellies and the pantry, a car to drive and gas to power it, three handsome boys, a cool little dog, great friends, wonderful family, a God who loves us, a Jesus who died and rose again to save us, a Holy Spirit who comforts us.  And we have each other--me and my number one and only gal!  April, I wouldn't want to be doing this with anyone but you, and I'm thrilled to do it!

Thank you Jesus, for another trip around the sun.