Today is my 26th Birthday! My gosh where has the time gone?! I can’t believe another year has passed!
I woke up to breakfast in bed and spent the afternoon getting pampered with a massage and pedicure (thanks to my wonderful husband) as my birthday gift. We will celebrate some more with dinner tonight, but I don’t technically turn 26 until around… oh… 9:50pm (8:50 cst).
So, before I turn 26 I’d like to do a little reflecting. This is a tradition I started two years ago – taking time on my birthday to reflect on special memories from the past year. I based it on Isaiah 4:7 (You can read the last two here and here). So here goes!
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:: 25 memories from my 25th year ::
(in random order)
1- Moving to Michigan – 3 days after my birthday last year I moved 1,000 miles from my home, friends, and family. It was scary and difficult but Rusty held my hand the whole way. We learned a lot about ‘leaving & cleaving’ and depending on one another. I can’t believe we’ve been here a YEAR!
2- Living with my World Race Roommates – when we moved to Michigan we weren’t married yet, so Rusty moved in with the Hindes and I moved into the World Race house! I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to spend my last few single months with such awesome roomies. Thank you all for your love and support during such a stressful time of transition!
3- Marrying my Best Friend – I waited all my life to find love. Marrying Rusty was a DREAM COME TRUE! It was the happiest day of my life!
4- Our Wedding Day – ok, I know I already said marrying Rusty on this list…but our wedding day deserves another spot! It was perfect… a beautiful dress, incredible music, and a fairy-tale ending. What made it even more special though was the company – sharing that day with my family and so many of my closest friends was SO precious to me! THANK YOU to everyone who was a part!
5- A perfect honeymoon in Colorado – seriously… it was PERFECT! And a special thanks goes to the Krause Family, who let us use their gorgeous cabin for free. We got a perfect honeymoon AND made some very special new friends…who could ask for more?
6- Getting a new name – it took 9 months with our hectic schedule, but I FINALLY changed my name! I love being Mrs. Ericka Jackson 🙂
7- Getting a new family – with a new name came a new family, and I have some super sweet in-laws! I even got a SISTER! FINALLY! 🙂
8- Moving into our 1st Home together – thanks to our very generous landlord, we were able to move into this beautiful little home. It’s been a perfect fit!
9- Buying our 1st car together – this was a really big deal to me because (if you’ve known me for long you know) my last car was a 1989 Volvo Station Wagon (lovingly called The Blue Kazoo). I was very thankful for it because it was a gift, but that old junker had seen much better days! I was so tired of it overheating and always having to have it fixed. Then it couldn’t make the trip to Michigan so I was car-less for 5 months. When we were able to purchase my used Explorer I was THRILLED!
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10- Meeting all our new friends, er family, in Michigan. I can’t express enough gratitude for the way our church ‘family’ up here has taken us in. Everyone has been so loving and supportive – I couldn’t have survived so far away from home without all you WONDERFUL people!
11- My 1st trip to CANADA – I know… I’ve been to the southern most tip of Africa, you’d think I would’ve been to CANADA! But no – not until this year! Since we only live 5 minutes away Rusty and I took our first trip over and had a blast…’Breakfast At Tiffany’s’ (the restaurant) was wonderful!
12- Seeing Niagra Falls – On another trip through Canada we got to see this AMAZING wonder of the world. Words do not do it justice – it was BEAUTIFUL! (this picture was taken after we got SOAKED on the Maid of the Mist!)
13- Starting a ‘Jackson Family Tradition’ – This year we created our first tradition, going to the annual Auburn vs Arkansas Football Game. Even though my team lost, we still had a lot of fun!
14- My 1st major league baseball game – I’m not a big baseball fan, but I had a blast with Rusty at the Detroit Tiger’s game for his birthday! I loved wearing orange and blue and cheering for the TIGERS! haha!
15- Learning to paint – I’m no Picasso, but I’ve taken up painting this year and I’ve had a lot of fun! I made Rusty two pieces as a wedding gift, and also did some Christmas paintings!
16- Celebrating our 1st holidays together (Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Birthdays). We had a GREAT time at every one of them!
Valentine’s Day
Halloween
Christmas
17- Sponsoring an orphan in Thailand – this year we started sponsoring a beautiful little girl in Thailand, Rusty’s favorite place in the world! It meant so much to be able to impact the life of a child in such an awesome way!
18- Sponsoring an orphan in Swaziland – For the past few years the only way to sponsor a Swazi child was through a church who sponsored a carepoint. This year that changed, and Children’s Hopechest opened up to allow individual sponsors. I was SO EXCITED to start sponsoring a little boy in Swaziland this month. He is an adorable 5 year old name Smilo. We’re hoping we get to meet him and our little girl in Thailand someday soon!
19- Meeting 2 adopted Swazi children – Adopting from Swaziland is something I’ve wanted to do since I went in 2007, but we’d heard it was almost IMPOSSIBLE. This year that CHANGED, with the help of a new organization. On our honeymoon, we got to meet 2 adorable Swazi children adopted by a family in Colorado. It was SO EXCITING!
20- Staffing World Race Training Camps – it was exhausting in every way imaginable, but being a part of three World Race Training Camps this year was actually a huge blessing! I loved pouring into the participants before they left for their year of mission work. God did some AWESOME things during our time there – THANK YOU to all of you who prayed for us and supported us so that we could go!
Training Camp Recap from Rusty Jackson on Vimeo.
21- Raising money for The Sound of Hope – another year has passed and we’ve raised even more money for orphans in India, Kenya, and Swaziland! We are making a difference in the lives of children around the world!!! We aren’t raising millions yet, but I believe someday (with God’s blessing) we will be. I’m looking forward to a lot of GROWTH coming this year!
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22- GTHOOPHD– Which stands for “GET THE HECK OUT OF PORT HURON DAY!” This year Kim and I celebrated the first annual GTHOOPH Day by a trip out of town to paint pottery Christmas ornaments and a great concert. It was a blast and I’m looking forward to many more in the future! We’re planning to drag our kids along someday too 😉
23- Adoption – It seems like this year has been a year of learning more about adoption. Not only did we meet the 2 adopted Swazi children, but I’ve been following the stories of other dear friends in the process of adopting. It’s SO exciting to me to see these precious children being rescued and given a family! Congratulations Brown Family, Owen Family, & Sharp Family! I can’t wait until we can adopt someday!
24- Hands of Hope – this year God gave me a vision of handprints on the wall. The handprints were the artwork of orphans around the world. I was blessed enough to see the vision come to fruition in our new “Hands of Hope” Artwork! We have pieces from children in Swaziland and India that we hope to have for sale online soon! (all the proceeds go to care for the orphans!)
25- NOT going overseas – This memory may not seem like a big deal, but it set this year apart from the past 2 in a big way! I’ve grown accustomed to overseas travel since coming on staff as a missionary. I LOVE being overseas and doing hands on ministry. So does Rusty. It was a big adjustment for us NOT to go overseas this year…
When the money didn’t come in for our trip to Australia and Thailand it was hard to understand. As hard as it was though, I think it was also good. I really think this time of being HOME was a gift from God. Going home for our 1st Christmas and having some time to ‘settle in’ after a busy summer and fall was a welcome reprieve. And as much as we are looking forward to GOING again and getting our hands dirty overseas, it’s been wonderful to just focus on our day-to-day mission work here and our relationship as newlyweds!
It has been a special year. A different year.
A year of new beginnings.
For every thing – the good, the bad,
the difficult, and the beautiful I am so thankful!
I can’t wait to see what God has in store next year!
Happy 26th Birthday!!! What a blesed year you have had.
May the Lord continue to bless you, keep you and provide for you as you serve him and provide for the orphans.
Love you,
Ms. Cherie
Wow….. ALL that happened THIS year?!?!! Hard to believe it all went by so fast!! I love you so very much and love that I got to be there for many of these special times. You are a blessing in my life and I pray that your 26th year out-does your 25th!! Love you!!!
PS- Looking forward to the next GTHOOPHD and someday, dragging the kids. 😉
Hey sweet baby girl…yep…you will always be our baby girl, even though you are 26! I thank God for your wonderful life with your best friend…I am living that life as well. I am so glad you are in God’s hand, for that makes all the difference in the world! Britt and I are in AL now…and you don’t have a birthday gift cause you didn’t respond to my email! Ha! Let me know what you need and I will get in to you…if you just need the moola, then let me know before we head out of here on Monday and I will get it to your mom. Love you!
Aunt Angie and Uncle Britt
Erika! Ahhh,this brought tears to my eyes!! I love video of you and Rusty! He sounds like a news reported, very good speaking voice!! I am Godly proud of what the Lord is doing in you all’s life!!! Love ya!!!
love this recap!!! you’ve been busy this year! it’s been so awesome having you guys as part of our CC family. looking forward to seeing what this next year brings…
love ya!