Another Year Comes and Goes

That’s a wrap on 2024! Every year since Nick and I have been married, we have sent out Christmas Cards to friends and family. Each year, Nick picks a different theme for the letter to update, encourage, and point people back to the Gospel. Some of the letter themes have been “Time,” “Counting All Things as Loss Compared to Christ,” and “Thankfulness.” This year, he focused on “God’s Faithfulness.” I always love looking back at each year and seeing what we learned about, how we grew, reminiscing on the wonderful times we had, and the challenges we faced. But one thing always stays the same: God remains faithful in our lives. As we look back at 2024, we can’t help but smile. 2023 was….So hard. Moments of good and fun but just really challenging. However, 2024 was truly awesome! Here’s a little recap for you!

Nick - If Nick had to pick one word for himself this past year it would be “Thriving.” Nick Turner is living his best life. He has grown a lot as a husband and father. He is learning how to be a homeowner and YouTube is his best friend for all how-to videos on any house project. He absolutely loves his job even when it is challenging. He is a wonderful pastor to the people of Hope Northwest. His heart and dedication to know God’s Word and speak truth, disciple, and lead the church is amazing. He is still praying and looking for another job as we have always wanted him to be somewhat bivocational. He has applied to almost 2 dozen jobs. He is keeping his options open to what the Lord wants, but we pray that God would open up the perfect job for him that would allow Him to use his giftings, to meet the needs of the community and help others, would be a great schedule for our family and his role at our church, as well as provide a good supplemental income for us. As of writing this, he has an opportunity to cover a couple Bible classes at the local Christian school for the remainder of the school year. We are praying about if this will develop into something more permanent!

At the beginning of this year, he found a nonprofit organization that teaches Biblical Hebrew over Zoom at no cost. Nick loves to learn and is always finding ways to learn more. I’m a big fan of the free aspect and the fact that it is once a week and he doesn’t have to leave our house. It is his goal to be able to read and write Greek and Hebrew in the next ten years. Besides his normal busy weekly routine of preparing his sermon for Sunday, prepping Men’s Group study, trying to love me well, finding time for his kids, keeping our cars and home in working order, and planning weekly family adventures, he is now learning two languages at the same time. He constantly impresses me and I know that I am one lucky girl.

Zion - What a year it has been for Mr. Zion and what better way to end it than with a big 3-year-old birthday party? He had his second and third surgery and it looks like we are in the clear now. He is gifted both athletically and intelligently like his father. Read one book to him or sing a song once (maybe twice) and he’ll have memorized the whole thing. We have started a little bit of “school” with him because he loves to learn and memorize things. He never stops talking and for the most part, everyone can usually understand him. He is obsessed with his little sister and always wants her around. He cares deeply for her but also likes to try and bother her any chance he can. We are working on obedience and using words rather than noises and big emotions to express ourselves. He learned how to ride a peddle bike with training wheels, is learning to swim a little, is mostly potty trained, and is practicing letter sounds and pronunciation of words. This kid has so much energy and loves to run everywhere but has also found a love for sitting and watching a movie (for many consecutive days until we find a new movie to watch).

Olive - Olive, 19 almost 20 months, is just the best. I just look at her and think that I want to be her when I grow up. She is such a vibe. So full of joy and laughter yet so chill at the same time. She has really found her personality and boy, is it all over the place. She carries big emotions from every end of the spectrum. This past year she learned to crawl, walk, climb, run, jump, ride a balance bike, eat, clap, dance, and (my favorite) sleep great! She has at least a couple dozen words and I’m pretty sure she picks up a new word daily. If she can’t say the word she finds a way to communicate to us what she wants so well. She is very independent and determined. She loves her brother and wants to do everything…and I mean everything…he is doing. We are so thankful for her and all the fun she adds to this family.

Church - I plan to post an update about our church soon, so for now; Hope Northwest is doing great. We have a small but committed group of men and women that ranges from 12-15 every Sunday. Still only one other little girl attends and hangs out with me and the kids during the sermon. Our men’s group and women’s group still meet once a week. We faced a lot of opposition this year with a few congregants parting ways over different disagreements as well as continued issues with our neighbor and the city. We are prayerful that that will change as soon as we find a new building to start meeting in. Although we have not grown in size recently, it has been such a pleasure to see the spiritual growth of individuals in our church. The friendships that have been built, the trust and commitment, the eagerness to grow and learn and also to share what they have learned with others in and outside the church. God is so good. We are excited for new changes coming soon as we continue to follow the call of church planting. 

House - We have been living in our new home for a year and a half. As most homeowners know the fun never stops. We have a running list of things we are still yet to finish. But it is a beautiful space that we love and are incredibly thankful for. We make sure to use it to love others by hosting as much as we can. We had a Labor Day BBQ, Zion’s Birthday party, Bible Study, invited other families over for dinner, and Easter Sunday after church. We are currently focused on learning more about our yard, what everything is, what to get rid of, how to maintain it, and of course how to grow a garden this coming Spring!

Me - Once again God has used motherhood to refine me more than I thought I needed. From the two kids crying and whining at the same time, to sleep issues, and two toddlers not listening, I think I can honestly say that I have become more like Jesus this year. I have my ups and downs with parenting, being a wife, being a pastor's wife, and being a pastor's wife of a church plant from the ground up. The complaining and struggles are still real, but I am so thankful for God’s grace and strength to get me through. I’m more thankful that He reveals my selfish attitude and teaches me how to die to myself more each day. I feel that I am in a great place mentally, physically, and spiritually. This past year Nick and I got on a good workout routine and have finally found how we want to eat that is both healthy but still tasty and fun. Our Women’s Bible Study group has been so great. It has both encouraged and challenged me to not only grow in my faith but also have a desire to learn on a deeper level than ever before. I am almost done reading a 500-page book which if you know me at all is a big deal! I started a little preschool co-op with two of my friends meeting every other Friday. Each mom gets to host and lead and it went so well the first few months. Like anything, I realize it just takes time for my kids to adjust and learn the system to not only enjoy themselves but to behave properly. I guess you could say this is the beginning of our homeschool journey. 

The main highlight of this year: Summer. We LOVED summer this year. I’ve always loved summer but I think there is something special about seasons that make you soak it up a little more. I used to love the beach, but now after having young kids, I would pick a river before the beach any day! The water is cold which I wish I could change but on a hot day, it is SO refreshing. The kids love the water and playing in the sand. We found a little “beach” just 10 minutes from our house off the Columbia River that I could take the kids to by myself. We probably went there 1-2 times a week last summer. Another high from this past year has been watching our kids grow up but more specifically grow in their love for one another. Olive is now old enough to play with Zion. They are so cute together and I just love how they talk to each other. She calls him “Bubba” because she can’t say Zion. As I sat at Zion’s cute little birthday party back in December, I looked around and was so thankful for the friendships that God has brought into my life. It was a special moment. A true answer to prayer, to have a few like minded mama’s and awesome kids that all get along. And lastly, watching God work in the lives of people in our church has brought us so much joy and encouragement this past year. There are more great moments but these are definitely top ones for me!

I’m trying to think of the lowest part of this past year. Our neighbor definitely put a damper on our year again. He simply takes the joy away from living here. I love my house and my street but I still get annoyed pulling into my cul-de-sac and seeing his house, or seeing him working in the yard, or hearing his car, or being in our backyard and seeing his balcony. It’s gotten better but I still pray that he would move away or that God would change his heart. Zion’s last surgery had a really brutal recovery week, that I think was worse than the other two. And as always I miss my family and wish I could somehow have my life here but be able to snap my fingers to see them any time I wanted. Not sure if that feeling will ever go away or if it will always be a sad part of my year.

Things that we are implementing into our family this year. 

1. We decided to memorize a Bible verse every month with our kids. We figure they are sponges and memorize everything else. Why not have them memorize something that will actually help them? And I definitely need to get better at memorizing scripture again.

2. We started doing Family devotions in the morning. Nick is doing such a great job with the kids. He is helping them learn their memory verse but also teaching great biblical concepts by using fun illustrations. And I am very impressed already that Zion is memorizing what we talk about. And Olive is even grasping some of it!

3. Schedules and routines. I know that people in general function well off routine. Kids especially. We have always been pretty routined week by week but I have decided to create a schedule for Zion to be able to follow and know what we are doing each day. The catalyst that drove me to this was trying to change up the TV-watching routine as it was starting to become more and more and not at useful times for me. I look forward to seeing how the kids respond to being more structured. I feel that they are going to thrive, be less difficult for me, and start playing and being more creative and content knowing what to expect. 

4. Nick and I usually try to get out on a date once a month and have his parents watch the kids. We still plan to do that when we can but we recently have implemented weekly at home date nights. And let me tell you, Friday nights are something I look forward to every week now! Nick is so cute with planning them and they are anything from sitting and chatting on the couch or out by our new fire pit, doing a puzzle while watching a movie, a craft, or playing a game. It’s a great way for us to connect and break up the weekly routine that we all can so quickly fall into. It helps energize me after a long few days with the kids heading into our weekend of working. Highly recommend all couples to have intentional weekly date nights.

5. Lastly, now that traveling back to California has slowed down we have decided to start taking a family vacation somewhere else each year. We did one in 2023 so our goal is to do it again this spring. We love going to California but it’s not much of a vacation because it is so busy and we don’t really get a lot of time together. So we are excited to capture new traditions and memories this year as a family.

   
   

When I started this blog I never really set expectations for myself. I pre-wrote a lot of posts before I went live and then that kind of morphed into a once-a-month goal. Well after a couple dozen posts, I am setting an expectation for myself for writing this year. And that expectation is to not have expectations. This is not a job nor is it high on the priority list. If I go back to the reason I started writing, I realize that for the phase of life I am in, my personality, and the fact that I don’t always have updates or interesting topics to write about, I can release all pressure for myself and post when I have something to say. Maybe one day that will change, but for 2025 my goal is to write. Not because I feel I have to, but because I want to journal about our lives. 

We are so blessed and thankful and are anticipating this to be another great year. We foresee many changes to our lives this year but we say bring it on. God holds true to His promises so we know He will be faithful once again.

“And my God will fulfill all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:19

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Jess T.

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Prayer Requests

• A blessed year - and that we respond well to anything that comes our way

• Continue to keep Jesus first in our lives today and all through the year

• Parenting wisdom as we try and raise these two loud high energy toddlers

• For our church - find a new building and continue to grow spiritually and in size