About a year ago, my wife wrote a lovely, long post on Facebook about the trials our family faced during 2017, culminating with a Christmas season where she was pretty much totally out of commission after surgery. I just happened to stumble across that post today and I like it so much I read it 3 or 4 times.

A year has passed since she wrote that.

We’ve moved into our new house and it has slowly “become ours” over many months, with Terry’s touch making it a beautiful, lovely place to call home. There’s still more to do, but isn’t that always the case? Things are working out well here. Terry puts so much thought into every little effort into making it a nice home, but that’s no surprise if you know Terry. She’s really good at this stuff. And so much other stuff…

We came through our marriage trials in 2017 and are now on the other side of things. Sure, there have been ups and downs through 2018, but the important thing is we work together through the downs and come out stronger on the ups. I know I certainly am more in love with her than I’ve ever been, and am exceedingly thankful for how beautiful, funny, thoughtful, and smart my wife is.

Maybe Terry will have the urge to post another year-in-review, because I’m sure she’ll do a better job than I ever would. I’m not even going to try. She’s the family wordsmith.

We have more changes coming for 2019, but that’s the way it goes, especially when you’ve got four kids at home. There are braces in the cards for the older 2 kids, our 2 adult kids are starting new ventures or soon will be, we’re trying to work out a trip or two or three, and there might even be some big changes on the grown-up side of things here. But good changes that we’re going through together for all the right reasons.

I look forward to my 18 days (!) off over the holidays, and to what 2019 will bring. I’m loving this family journey with Terry by my side.