Goodbye Twenties...You've been pretty cool..

Tomorrow I hit the big 3.0. as in I turn 30! I am not having a big over the top bash nor will I be sobbing into my pillow (I hope), but I am looking forward to coffee with friends and dinner with my husband and maybe a little reflecting too. I remember, distinctly, turning 20. I could NOT wait to leave my teen years behind! My roommate and a few other friends kidnapped me, blindfolded me and took me to Grand Rapids for the night. I remember it being fun in a where the HECK are we going kind of way. Nowadays if say Mark were to "kidnap" me I am hoping to end up in Cabo or something.

 There were so many things I hoped for in my twenties, it was as if life was about to begin. Being 18 and 19 still felt too close to high school, and for the record I was NOT a big fan of high school. I ate lunch in the library and actually liked having homework. Is that weird?

 If I can reflect a little on the past ten years it makes me see that the twenties are so full of change and new experiences. Sometimes as I sit in my family room folding laundry or making grocery lists I forget that my life has been so incredibly interesting and full. I have this wealth of life to draw from. Things that remind me of who I am and where I am going. In ten years I have finished college, lived in a foreign country, moved to Colorado met and married my husband, finished grad school, moved to a different state and then moved back to Colorado, had a baby, bought a house, and SOME of my sanity is still in tact! Whoa...really?

OK 30 that is a tough act to follow. Most of those things (except for having more kiddos) I don't plan on repeating so we need to come up with some new dreams and aspirations here. Honestly though, I look at it as building a foundation, something to keep building upon. I believe that the past ten years have all worked to make me a more open and honest person. I am more open to God and his will and movement in my life. I believe that I am more honest with myself and with people. Maybe I am living more honestly in that I am aware that I am limited in what I can give or do, but God is able to do new and incredible things through me.

There was a time when I really believed I was indispensable and could do anything and everything. But you know, its not true. I can do some things pretty well, and a lot of things I fail at doing well or at all. And that is OK with me. My hope for the next ten years is that I can continue to learn and grow as a person. I want to love more and love better. I want to continue to have passions and dreams and desires. I want to know God in a deeper more life-altering way. I want to enjoy and cherish my family. I hope for all these things. If God has allowed so many amazing, painful, challenging, awe-inspiring, life-changing, and beautiful things to happen in my twenties why not so much more in my thirties? A girl can dream right? And from where I am standing hopes and dreams are what make life worth living.