New Year’s day is probably, admittedly, one of my favorite holidays. It is also one that causes me a lot of anxiety and frustration throughout the year and leading up to it (as I mentioned yesterday when I shared my word for the year).

One thing I’ve learned from making goals or focal words each year is that a lot of the time, what my heart desires most is really out of my control. In the last five years, I wondered each year if that was the year I would bring home a healthy baby. While this last year brought a resounding yes to this question, I can’t help but recognize how many others are still waiting and wondering.

Maybe you are hoping this new year brings you the thing you most desire. Love. Career. Health. Family. Maybe your faith is faltering. Faith in yourself, in others, in God. You’re tired. Tired of carrying the weight of a broken heart. Tired of the missing piece remaining just outside of your grasp.

I know how hard it is to hear “it will all work out” when you are in the middle of it. It feels like empty optimism at best, and someone trying to sweep your pain away at worst. I wish I could tell you that this will be the year it will all happen. Reveal the perfect plan to achieve your dreams. Show you all the unforeseen pitfalls and obstacles and how to overcome them. But I can’t.

But what I can tell you is that this is a new year. A year to grow. To learn. To experience. There is hope to be found in the day-to-day details, and I pray that you see it glimmer and shine into your life.

I know the waiting place. I know how isolating it can feel, how much fear is there. But you are not alone. You are not forgotten. You are seen and you are loved. And no matter what this year will bring, it will not take away how valuable and worthy you are.