Growth in December 2011

I'll start by saying this: My sweet little baby boy rolled over for the first time today!! It is absolutely amazing at the physical growth we have witnessed this month! God is amazing!
Here is William at the beginning of December (12/2/2011)

He started the month as a tiny little guy!
This month's highlights included:
Putting up the Christmas Tree with Baba (that's William's Grandfather, Bill)
Walking with Beth S. and Claire and Julie. William doesn't have a crush yet but he sure does love smiling at those ladies!
Game Night at the Jones' for Mrs. Ginny's Birthday. William loves getting held by Mr. Mark and Mrs. Ginny and playing with Abby!
William's Dedication on the 18th Family was there and William loved eating lunch afterward and being played with by ALL of them! We are so thankful that our family came to be a part of this special day for us all!
Christmas at Gramma and Pop's (that's Williams Grandmother and Grandfather, Angi and Sonny) with Great Aunts Cindy, Mindy, and Sandra and Great Uncle Fred was super fun with Christmas games!
Christmas at Yaya and Papa's (that's Brenda and Ronnie) which was as fun as a roller coaster! :-) We are so proud of Yaya since this was her first sober Christmas and she wanted everything to be perfect for everyone! We learned so much about our inability to be perfect and are thankful that Christ makes us perfect through His sacrifice instead of us!
Christmas at Baba and GranAnn's with Uncle J and Aunt Ali was wonderful! This was our favorite Christmas meal cooked by GranAnn!
Rolling over for the first time on December 27th.  William rolled from back to tummy and then from tummy to back.  He has been sleeping for a couple of hours now since it took a great deal of energy to accomplish this task!
I left our camera at Yaya's house so we can't get a picture today.  Here are a couple from mid-December right before William's Dedication:

With all the changes and events I learned so much this month. Personally, I learned that nothing has to be the way you want it...it only has to be the way God planned it.  As crazy as it is, it is just the way it is supposed to be.  Although we have things from our families and pasts that we must work through, they are OUR families and OUR pasts.  Christ is the only one who is perfect and He is the ONLY one who can make amends in my heart with things in my life and mind.  I am so thankful for Jeremy and William and all my family, new and old.  It is through the family, both in and out of Christ, that God choose to teach us some things.  It is there that we learn who to be, how to walk, how to grow in grace, how to parent, how to love, how to smile when things may not be so sweet, and how to laugh at the things that are funny even if they aren't so so so funny to everyone.  It is within family, whether it be spiritual or physical family, that we learn how to be loved back, how to be laughed with, how to listen, how to speak with kindness.  Whether we learn how through seeing it done rightly or wrongly, we learn.  And we grow.  And God molds us.  He doesn't just change us to be a dead end road but changes us so that we can allow our children and others' children to grow through us.  He changes us so that we can be light and salt to the world around us.  Even to our own families.  The Orlich Family hopes you had a Merry Christmas, a Delightful December, and will have a Terrific 2012! But if you didn't or don't, that's ok, we grow through it and learn from it year by year.  May God grow and mold you and us toward Himself, in whatever way He sees fit and may we all embrace it...the way it is.