This blog is such a fun record of life, and I was just re-reading my 2015 Goals post from a year ago. I can’t wait to talk about how 2015 went + look forward to 2016, but I was struck by the very end of this blog post. Each year, I like to choose a Bible verse and a word of the year, and this is what I wrote a year ago:

My word for the year is “open”

Open heart; open arms. Open to new adventures, new opportunities, change, growth, love, and serving others. Open to whatever it is that the Lord wants for my life. Open to serving Him faithfully, loving Him more, and loving others more. And ultimately, I have no idea what this year has in store for me (really, there is a lot up in the air!), and I want to be open to that!

Wow. Reading that is a little mind-blowing when I think back to how 2015 unfolded. It was unlike anything I expected, but it was also better than I ever imagined. God’s plans are always better than my own, and I’m just blown away when I really stop to think about just how much has changed — and how open to change I was. I was talking about this exact thing with a couple dear friends when I was home for Christmas, and it all really leaves me in awe. Throughout the entire year, I tried my best to really listen to the Lord, to keep Him first and foremost, and to be willing to go where He led. I wasn’t even close to perfect, by any means, but my how I tried! I had an inkling that I would move, but I wasn’t positive where – or what for. I trusted, kept my heart & arms open, and waited in expectation.

I would definitely say that 2015 was one of the biggest years of change in my (admittedly young!) life, and it’s hard to fathom just how much has changed since I wrote my 2015 Goals blog post one year ago. I continued wedding planning, decided to take my part-time business full-time + essentially worked two full-time jobs once that happened, traveled a ton and had a lot of amazing adventures, met the most incredible & encouraging people, spent lots of time with the best family & friends, finished out the school year at my full-time job, resigned and took Stephanie Scholl Events full-time in July, moved from my home in DC (for six years) to Raleigh, NC in August, planned & designed a million styled shoots, continued planning weddings for the best couples, met countless wedding industry friends, met the sweetest boy in a most unexpected way several months ago… goodness. It has been a full, full year. Not all of it has been good (of course!), and there were some incredibly hard moments, but for the whole, I am reminded time and time again how blessed and happy I am. You just never know what the Lord’s plans are + how much can change in a year, especially if you surrender to Him.