The Farewell to our Favorite Year
We said bye bye to 2015 with lots of smiles,
lots of sharing,
lots of babies,
and lots of friends!
It was a sweet way to bid farewell to the best year of our lives and a testimony to the rich favor God poured over our family this year. By far, we've loved 2015 more than any year in comparison. I hope I can continue saying that year after year, but to be sure, this one will be a mammoth to compete with.
Our Year in Review:
God's been so generous to us.
Our greatest joy was met on February 27 when Little Miss Amelia made her entrance into our lives. And we'll never be the same. She's brought us love we never knew and smiles we never could. Through the birth of our first child, we've deepened our faith as Believers, as we now understand with a greater depth, the Love of a Father. The love of The Father. Amelia's given us new perspective. New life. New hope. And a whole bunch of new beginnings. We're madly in love with her, and if nothing else were to have happened in 2015, we would still be smiling just as big. She is incredible.
But as it turns out, this year was met with a few more HUGE milestones.
In April, we moved to our 9th apartment in New Orleans. What we initially considered a curse (not a real curse, but what we started jokingly calling, "The Conley Curse") became one of the richest blessings of 2015. Adam started and led a team Fellowship Group (Bible study-ish) and by June, 12 or 13 of his 25 teammates were meeting together in hotel lobbies, sharing life with each other. It was something we didn't even know to pray for, yet God was alive in the hearts of these men like nothing we've ever experienced in professional baseball. Adam was so filled by the Spirit that I remember him saying to me in Tacoma, Washington - where Adam got to pitch in front of his hometown crowd - that he was praying God wouldn't send him to the Big Leagues. That if he left, who would lead? Lives were changing, decisions were being made, and he was serious about wanting to be available to them in whatever capacity possible, all for the sake of the Kingdom. For the sake of eternity. For the next three days, Adam's prayer was that he'd stay with his AAA team and that if he never made it to the Show, then he knew it was because God had other plans for him. I'm not even making this up...three days later, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Adam got the call he'd been waiting for since the age of 7. He was going to Miami to make his Major League Debut!!!
He gave God his career - put it right into His hands - and three days later, God gave him his dream.
On June 10, 2015, Adam made his MLB debut in Toronto, Canada in front of 40,000 people, Amelia, and I. He ended up enjoying a very successful season with Miami and was pitching better than ever before. And I believe with everything I am, that when he finally gave the Lord his career with open hands - he was free to enjoy and work and excell at baseball as it was designed to be played. Not as his worth, but as his witness. Seeing him on that field in Toronto (and in Miami, St. Louis, Atalanta, New York, Philly, Milwaukee, D.C., and Tampa,) was the second scoop on my ice cream cone of 2015.
The third scoop came in October. After two months of baseball in Miami, Adam and I were able to purchase our very first home! After 3 moves, 22 cities, 34 planes, 36 beds, 11 stadiums, and 1 water birth, we've never felt so grateful to call our home...home. The kind of home that doesn't move and that come Spring Training, nothing in it has to move either! Praise be to God!
A few other things that highlighted this year - maybe like, the sprinkles to my ice-cream cone:
1) Adam and I celebrated FOUR years of seriously awesome marriage! We're still madly in love and slightly obsessed with each other. Well, at least I am. Can't really speak for him, but I think he still likes me ;) We shared so many incredible firsts this year, and though at times things did get difficult, he held me and led me and challenged me all the way through. I've never met another person with such humility and sacrificial love, and every day, I'm grateful for one more chance to see him smile.
2) At 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant, I completed my goal of doing 2 consecutive chin-ups without any assistance! It was something I worked tirelessly to attain, and with the help of my coaches and husband, I did it without breaking my waters and going into labor on the gym floor! Yahoo!
3) Between giving birth, traveling, playing professional baseball, and having an infant, our last GIGANTIC highlight was in the incredible accomplishment of our immune systems and bodies. Not one of the Conleys this year took a drop of medicine! Nothing! Adam played an entire season of baseball - and two months of that at the highest level - without any medication. No pain relievers. No anti-inflammatories. And no cold/flu medicine, which has been the HARDEST thing to avoid in his past few seasons, especially during Spring Training! Amelia, in her ten months of life, also never had anything pass through her system either! She traveled more than any baby probably should, slept in countless beds, stayed in hotels, rode on trains and subways and in taxis, stayed up till midnight most nights, experienced all sorts of crazy weather, and still, her little immune system carried on!!! We're just so proud of her!! And finally, I somehow managed to make it though 2015 without any medication either! I was able to have a very peaceful and uncomplicated birth - medication free - helped by the relief of the water I was in and the words spoken to me by Adam. By far, this is the healthiest we've EVER been and we forever have Amelia and our chiropractor to thank for it. It was because of her little life in my belly and through Dr. Matlock's care and wisdom that we were able to accomplish such health this year. Praying for years of continued health!
2015, you were INCREDIBLE!!
Thanks to everyone who was apart of such joy. It's a year we'll treasure forever. What a blessing! Farewell, my Friend! Hello 2016!
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