One Last Entry....

For the coming year, i am no longer going to keep this blog, but i wanted to write a little bit of summary of this last year. I am going to copy this blog into a book , so i mainly write this entry for us as a family. We wish all of you a very Happy NEW YEAR and pray, as we do for ourselves, that it would be one of great JOY and Growing affections towards CHRIST.

Year 2006 has been so full that I truly don't know where to begin....but what year hasn't been full for us Stewarts?! Since me and Stew got married 3 years ago, it has been one adventure after another! From trips to other countries, children and jobs, to new friends and old friends and more lessons than we could learn. Truly, we have lived in much. But this year, 2006, we started unsure of what the year would hold and looking back in hind sight, we are amazed.

This January, we became a part of a small group with Hope with 2 couples we desired to know more. And began a time that would change our lives forever. We met every Thursday, food, kids and all. What started as a time of hanging out, changed quickly to a place where we spoke into each other's lives. It wasn't a time of "being friends", but acting as believers. The Albrechts and Hoffs quickly became our "new family" that we would depend much the rest of the year. We also got to visit the Crawfords in Mexico and experience great fellowship and encouragement!

In February, Stew continued with his masters degree online and went to California for a class while wesleygrant and I visited Grandma Marie in Columbia, SC. We got to meet with some missionaries from China and Mrs. Dannelly and I got to lay, late at night across her bed laughing at the tapes her brother sent from England singing old hymns with a recorder in a strong English accent!

From March until early May, I continued working at Hope Preschool and watching my little baby, grow into a little boy. I found a deeper passion for training my children in the Lord as I anticipated the arrival of our daughter, "Sarah Marie". Stew worked at Hope Church learning what it meant to have influencial leadership rather than positional leadership and had so much fun with the missions staff.

Our home front in the inner city continued to show more need than we could fix, but my great friend and neighbor, Laura Pinkstaff and I continued to pray and seek to show the kids and some adults that Christ was all that mattered. Laura, did we ever figure that out?! Matt and Laura officially announced, "We are going to India!". Laura and I began preparing for that in so many ways, for both of us, as well as our families connecting deeper as we prayed and walked through that journey with them.

Late March started us on an unexpected round of interviews with one church after the other. We were open, from Chicago and California, to Indonesia and Thailand. Austin, Texas was on our radar, but it was very dim and we weren't sure if that was a road we would even have opportunity to walk. So we just prayed.

Stew's heart and passion for "church planting" and "disciple-making" began to take a whole new light of thinking and God began to plant in his heart, what would lead us, as a family, into what we like to call, a time of "detoxing".

I finally made it through morning sickness and started to feel like a new woman. I continued discovering what it meant to be a wife and mom, a neighbor, teacher and friend. Soon, on May 12, I would learn what it meant to be a daughter.

On Friday, May 12th, Michael got a phone call from my dad. My mother was in the hospital and they had run tests for a blood clot and found Cancer all over her body. That morning, i had an OB appointment and that afternoon, we were on our way to Texas. That next week, i would say, was one of the most powerful weeks of my life this year. I watched my mother go and be with the Lord, while trying to discover myself who God was in it all and how to be a daughter in those final moments. God's mercy, grace, almighty powerful, sovereign hand. That is what I found. A lot came into perspective from all those years i struggled as a daughter. Creator, Maker, Life- Sustainer, Comforter, Healer, my Redeemer, Lord and King, Beginning and the End....I Am, I Am...this was my mother's God.

So we returned to Memphis but i was different. We were all changed. I felt a bit lost. Preschool had ended and i was soon to expect my daughter. Wesleygrant was in need of many changes as he went through many changes himself. I was put on bedrest due to much of the stress. That was hard. But best. Matt and Laura began selling things to leave for India. Stew continued with job interviews and we all struggled to just maintain life there. We continued to pray. My new friends, quickly became great friends in my life that i needed and i was thankful for those God had placed in my life, just a few months prior.

Our daughter, who was once, "Sarah Marie", became "Sally Marie Stewart" after my mother and grandma Marie. On July 2nd our daughter was born. Thus, I became a mother of 2. Parenting brought more meaning now and also more challenges. Many times i was breaking down...many times i was rejoicing. but we continued on in our Memphis world seeking to know and rely upon our Great God.

August came, then September and before we knew it, the only job offer on the table was from the one we least suspected...Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, TX. It seemed to be the place God had been preparing us for and so we began packing up to move. But it was a fast and difficult thought of leaving all of our relationships there in Memphis. But on October 9th, we left and arrived in Austin October 12th to our apartment.

We have spent the rest of this year here in Austin. We have discovered wonderful things and things of loss. It has been both good and hard. We left our friends, house, neighborhood that became like home to us and have come to a place where we feel very "foreign". Sally and I went back to memphis to say goodbye to the Pinkstaffs in November...to say a final goodbye to memphis. It was official, we were now fully moved to Austin.

Wesleygrant turned 2 years on November 14th and already amazes us with counting to 10 and saying so many words. He is growing more into a little boy. He had his first fall and emergency room visit that we are glad is over and all is well. Sally is no longer a little baby. She is eating solid foods and well on her way to crawling and playing with wesleygrant. Our children have been a GREAT joy in the midst of all the change.

Stew and I are rediscovering what it means to be a Christian, through our losses and our gains. We have discovered that we have been somewhat deceived by many false ideas about life and what it means to be a disciple of Christ. We desire to be like our Rabbi, Jesus Christ. We have experienced much oppression and depression here, but this is part of our journey...part of our "detox". God is greatly showing Himself in things we wouldn't have expected. We are amazed at the need we have for our Lord. but Praise God for that!

I came through thanksgiving, a birthday and Christmas without my mother. I'm still figuring out feelings i often can't express. But this Christmas, we began new traditions with our children...ones we hope to make better or take away, making our home one that exalts Christ above all things.

Stew continues to respond to the stirring that God brings about in him through his masters degree, new friends and the task of being a disiple and making disciples. i am SO PROUD and THANKFUL for him. He is my hero and example of Christ this year in so many ways.

So as we prepare to enter this new year, we are very humbled because of where we are and where we have been this year. We look ahead with great anticipation and hope. We pray that this year would be one of seeing Christ in a new way in all we are and in all we do. We can never prepare for what is ahead, except to keep our eyes on Christ and not on ourselves. May we see Him more than ourselves this coming year! All praise and honor be to our Lord, our Rabbi, our Saviour who set us free and called us into a life with Him now and for eternity. God, make us beggars.

To Christ,
Stew, Kimberly, Wesleygrant and Sally