Where do I even begin...

How do you even sum up all the wonderful blessings that God places in your life in one single post.  How do I reflect on this past year of my now very hectic life.  Yet, I want to record every moment of it as I don't want to forget, ever, how I have watched God move in my daughter's life.  The end of March marked one year that my daughter was offered an opportunity to pursue her Dance Studio dream.  A year ago this month, marks the time when we wondered if we would make it through the trail of hatred that was coming at her from every angle.  This has been the busiest year of my life.  But I am so blessed to be smack dab right in the middle of it with my Brittany.  We have struggled together.  She is finding her independence and I am trying to let go.  Sometimes we butt heads in discussion when we both have different opinions.  Its hard going from mommy to "employee" when things are moving so fast you barely have time to come up for air. And, yet, through it all we have grown stronger than ever my daughter and I. 

And lets talk about what God has done in our life.  From the very beginning we prayed for wisdom...wisdom to show us the way.  We had been planning for this throughout our last years of school.  She had a notebook of ideas, which were fresh in our mind.  She would so often say..."when I have my studio I'll do this"...I would always say...make sure you write it down.  Sometimes we feel terrified, for instance.  It took us about four months to secure a theater for our recital.  We called so many different schools and could get no one to call us back.  Those were scary days for Brittany as she was on the phone for hours with butterflies in her tummy.  I was right there with her encouraging her to keep it up.  Finally, we found the theater.  We went to look at it and I stood in the middle of this beautiful theater that seats way more people than we could ever fill and yet it was so surreal that my 19 year old daughter was going to be producing her show in just a few short months.  We have spent hours upon hours creating policies, and paperwork, newsletters, updating her web site.  Trying to give people good customer service.  Trying to make a difference.  Trying to cover everything from our experience with dance studios over the years.  We held two huge fundraisers in the fall.  We sold pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Our clientele were able to sell these delicious pies to family and friends and the proceeds went toward their costume fees.  We filled two big vehicles twice, we had that many orders.  We ordered all of our costumes and have now handed every one of them out without a hitch.  And all fit! Which is truly amazing.  Our dancers are beautiful and sparkling :)  We have ordered all of our tights and just received them this week.  Oh and she rented a beautiful back drop for the stage.  We ordered our tickets and they are sitting here waiting to go on sale this Saturday!  We ordered her Performance Team jackets and they did a Christmas performance at the library.  And...we kept Christ in the words of the music!  In two weeks she'll be taking her team to their first dance competition.  Then, in two weeks after that her second.  In just about a month we will have completed our first dance season and preparing for our BIG show.  And don't forget about summer classes round 2.

So many things have happened to us.  She is ending her first year with 72 dancers.  How amazing is that! She was able to purchase her business in full by December 31.  She has been able to reinvest in her business by purchasing a monster of a brand new stereo.  New mats for her tumbling class. God has blessed her with so much and as I watch my daughter become a young woman with such a mind for business that it blows us away most days.  I watch as the kids come into our building dressed in their black leotards and tights, smiles on their faces.  Some now bringing fistfuls of dandelions to her.  I know that in her heart this is so much more.  To be a role model in the life of a child.  To be a safe place for children to learn about dance.  Sometimes her insight with her dancers astounds me.  She can see a need in the child and while she treats them all the same...she can treat them differently.  I have watched this performance team in particular go from shy little girls last summer to having friendships and learning to be a team together.  They have improved in every way and it is so amazing to watch. 

I am in awe of how God has taken my faith in Him from homeschooling to today.  I can't even put it into words and many days I am just speechless. I have learned to fully depend on Him these last several years of my life.  What it truly means to understand that He really does work everything out for His good.  Even when we wanted our life to go a different path.  Even though so many times in my life I felt like He wasn't there.  He was, I just wasn't.  I thought I was...but I wanted more than was what He wanted for me.  He opened my eyes and helped me to see and to live with what He had given me.  Not to waste a moment.  Not looking at my sorrow of infertility with eyes of sadness any longer but to see the little person He entrusted me to mother.  And now, my husband and I are a witness to the blessings he is pouring at our daughter.  Oh, I know there are tough days ahead.  But my faith stands that He knows best and that we only have to ask Him and he will deliver exactly what we need.

God Bless,
Joyce Marie