Kristin Hill Taylor

Seeking God as the Author of Every Story

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Merry Christmas!

December 4, 2007 by Kristin Leave a Comment

This letter accompanies the picture …

This Christmas story starts at last Christmas. We were in Louisville, visiting Kristin’s family, when her sister Cassie and her fiance Zac told us they found a baby for us to adopt. By the time we returned to Murray from Louisville, we had decided to pursue this specific adoption.

A couple of telephone conversations led us to Bloomington, Indiana, on January 18th to meet the birthmother in person and meet our baby girl via an ultrasound. And we named her on the way home. Catherine Anna. Catherine after Kristin’s mom and Anna after Greg’s grandma.

After seven trips to Bloomington, many phone calls and e-mails to our social worker and attorneys and a stack of paperwork, our daughter was born May 6 — just 15 ½ weeks after we first saw her on the monitor in the doctor’s office.

We left the hospital with Cate the following day, spent a week in a hotel in southern Indiana waiting for people in Indianapolis and Frankfort to clear the necessary paperwork, and haven’t been the same since.

Kristin returned to work six weeks after Cate was born. But that lasted only three months. Since September, she’s been enjoying the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom to Cate.

But speaking of work, Greg loves his endeavors as a real estate investor/house flipper/real estate and small business attorney. He’s in a new office with good visibility. In addition to rental property, renovated houses and foreclosure-rescued homes, Greg also started a realty company, so the realtor sells and manages his properties as well as other people’s properties.

We love the flexible schedule that allows us to spend time with our families and be involved at our church and in the community. Kristin keeps the books for Greg’s companies and takes Cate along with her a couple times a week.

Milla — our nearly 4-year-old niece on Kristin’s side of the family — is particularly fond of Cate. Milla has called Cate her “best cousin.” Then on the Taylor side, there’s Elijah, who’s also almost 4, and Ethne, who turned 2 in September. We’re glad to have Elijah and Ethne (along with their parents!) back in Murray after Greg’s brother Charles graduated from University of Tennessee’s vet school in May.

The same weekend in August that we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary, Cassie and Zac were married. Being five years apart in age, the Hill girls appreciated the similar timing of their marriages starting a year after being out of college.

Cassie and Zac met at Austin Peay State University, where she played soccer and he played basketball. Despite their alma mater being a heated rival of Murray State, we’re thankful to have Zac in our family now.

We’ve taken Cate to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game as well as Murray State football and basketball games. The University of Kentucky wanted to make us buy a ticket for her, so we’ll wait until she can appreciate the Big Blue to take her to Commonwealth Stadium.

A growing family — both immediate and extended — has been the theme, and we couldn’t imagine a better story to tell. We’re thankful to have family and friends like you with whom to share our life.

May God bless you and your family and give you good stories to tell in the coming year.

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Filed Under: holiday

Comments

  1. Katy Gorrell says

    December 4, 2007 at 4:45 pm

    Okay, that picture and the sweet letter have me all teary-eyed in front of the computer. Have I mentioned how happy I am for you and how much I want to visit?

    Reply
  2. Shelley says

    December 4, 2007 at 8:33 pm

    I just read that while i ate lunch! I can’t wait to see Cate again. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Heather says

    December 7, 2007 at 1:42 am

    Very sweet, Kristin. I love the picture!

    Reply

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About Me

Telling stories is my therapy and I love sharing them with friends on my porch.

The main characters in my stories are my entrepreneur husband, our high school girl who never forgets, our middle school boy who has no fear, and our joy-filled first-grade girl. As we live out our stories, we seek God as the author of them all.

Learn more about my story here.

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🎶 All throughout my history / Your faithfulness 🎶 All throughout my history / Your faithfulness has walked beside me / The winter storms made way for spring / In every season, from where I'm standing / I see the evidence of Your goodness / All over my life … 🎶 @joshbaldwin in “Evidence”

I love summer. But my summer has started off busy: appointments, book edits deadline, establish new habits with the kids at home. All that’s necessary and good, it just cuts into my down time beside the pool. 

Today we have two open gyms for our basketball players, my book study with a few friends, a new weekly high school girls’ book study at our house, and a monthly dad-son character study. 

I long for a little more white space on the calendar, but I also wouldn’t change a thing because the kids are only 16, 13, and 7 once. This summer will only be this summer once. And I’ve already learned time flies with big kids. 

So here we are finding out footing, singing praises with church friends on our porch, grilling delicious chicken, and squeezing in the wide-open spaces when we can. This is evidence of the good stuff. 

#84daysofsummer #poolpeople #momlife #momconfessions #faithlife #livingfaithfully #favoritethings #choosingJOY #countryliving #reallife #PorchStories
The Hill family reunion at @shelterpointretreat ha The Hill family reunion at @shelterpointretreat has become a favorite tradition to kick off summer! The weather was perfect and everyone enjoyed one another. 

#familyreunion #lakelife #kentuckylake #kylake #getoutside #familytime #memorialday #memorialdayweekend #favoritethings #84daysofsummer #summerisbest #choosingJOY
Hello, #84daysofsummer! ☀️ #TeamTaylor #girl Hello, #84daysofsummer! ☀️ 

#TeamTaylor #girlmom #boymom #momlife #reallife #summerisbest #siblinglove #countryliving #poolpeople #getoutside
First of all, who else has read this book? The plo First of all, who else has read this book? The plot was promising as a thriller and the setting really worked. There were some good twists, and then there were ridiculous twists. I skimmed the end only because I wanted it to make sense. And it didn’t. It was too weird for me. 

But this made me wonder: how do we know if a book is going to be weird, contain elements we don’t like, or go places that don’t make sense? I don’t like to read much about a book before I read the book. Usually, I do a better job of picking books for myself. 

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I needed this low-key weekend that was pleasant we I needed this low-key weekend that was pleasant weather, a mixture of productivity and rest, and had plenty of wide-open space to enjoy our property and each other. 

#weekending #TeamTaylor #poolpeople #countryliving #favoritethings #choosingJOY #maydays
And that’s a wrap on soccer season! I love watch And that’s a wrap on soccer season! I love watching them both play. 

#soccermom #weekending #springtime #momlife #girlmom #boymom
On Mothers Day, I wanted to sit by the pool with a On Mothers Day, I wanted to sit by the pool with a book, but I didn’t know what I wanted to read. Whenever I have indecision about books, picking up a thriller usually helps because of the story’s pace. 

“The Only Survivors” worked well because there was a lot happening! Lots of creepy, mysterious moments. Only so many people could be guilty of infiltrating a small group who had lots of secrets! 

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I want to savor the #84daysofsummer and I want to embrace this new season. And it’s almost time. Three more days of school. (Deep breaths.) 

Meanwhile, I’m going to keep collecting the moments — the hard, hurried, happy, and heartfelt. The seasons do change, but this is the life we are living. 

“The moments you collect may not be loud or flashy. They might be quiet or covered or a far-off view you were lucky to catch. But this I know to be true: A moment savored says to your soul, ‘You have lived something beautiful.’ And it keeps you buoyed. It sustains you when you’re running empty. It lifts you up and carries you forward.” — Joanna Gaines in @magnolia summer 2023 journal issue no. 27 

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I’ve read quite a few World War II novels, but t I’ve read quite a few World War II novels, but this one by Soraya M. Lane focused on three nurses, their friendships, and how the war changed their lives. It’s a hard story, but it’s full of love and hope despite the destruction around them. 

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