Bring on the Thirties

A few weeks back, a big thing happened: I turned thirty. It felt like a big thing, and yet oddly, it didn't.

Big, in how I could sense that a "book" within this novel that is my life had ended, and a brand new one had begun.

I can just imagine all the blank pages yet to be filled. It's the lovely anticipation one feels when acquiring a fresh new journal--the way it smells brand new, and the crisp, clean pages beckoning to be filled with unforgettable memories and deep thoughts.

But I wasn't scared or freaked-out to be turning thirty. It came in a quiet way. I had watched it approaching for the past few years and it just didn't feel like a big deal to me. In fact, after all the life I have lived thus far, it kind of felt like it was time for me to turn thirty, do you know what I mean?

{This birthday was also accompanied by a fair dose of melancholy, as my Grandpa Dorsey had passed away two days prior. It's a sad actuality that he passed away on what was my sister's birthday. She has a good attitude about it, but I still wish it hadn't happened that way.}

I've lived a lot of life in these past thirty years--thirty glorious years overflowing with happiness and joy and more incredible experiences than I ever could have dreamt of.

Still, I feel there is one, singular thing I have learned from life, just before turning thirty. Through my daughter, I have discovered love in its absolute purest form.

This love is so different from all the other great loves in my life--the love for my Heavenly Father, the love for my husband, the love for my family members.

It's just that this love I have for my baby girl is something I never knew I had inside of me. It has utterly and completely rocked my world. I am a changed woman, and a thousand times better for it. I never could have believed love like this were possible if I hadn't experienced it for myself.

 

So. Enough of the gushing.

All in all, I'm incredibly excited to discover what this next decade of my life will hold. After all, my twenties were pretty epic....

Let's see, there was: six weeks studying abroad in Normandy, France, then later studying abroad in Strasbourg, France for a semester and getting to travel around Europe, graduating with a double major, meeting and marrying the absolute love of my life {which afforded me my dream wedding and honeymoon!}, spending a summer working abroad in England, a mission trip to Trinidad and  Tobago, living and working in Hungary for eight months while Matt was deployed to Afghanistan, a whole fun array of work experiences {including working as a wrangler!}, lots of domestic travels, buying our first home, and of course, welcoming our first child! Oh goodness, I just can't even imagine being any more blessed.

If that is what my twenties brought me, then oh yes, please. Bring on these marvelous thirties!