A Whole Year

Can you believe that it’s been a whole year since I joined WordPress!?!  A whole year of sharing my life with perfect strangers, that in that time have become dear friends, who’s lives and families and hurts and joys and fears have become such a huge part of my life.  Being a member of this blogging community has also taught me so many things.  It’s taught me that no matter how unique I think my experience is, or no matter how much I think that I am the only person that has ever had these feelings or this heartbreak, or this hurt, or this joy, someone else, out there somewhere in their corner of the world, may just have gone through something similar.  Maybe someone needs to hear about my experiences to help them not feel so alone.

What started out as a journal of the days awaiting the arrival of our twin boys has turned into a written documentary of all the wonders and woes of being two moms, in a multiracial family, with twins and a foster daughter, in Suburbia, on one income.  Makes for a pretty interesting read, I’d say!  In the year that I have been on WP, I/we have:

• Found out we were having twins
• Tried my best at inducing lactation (for months!!!)
• Moved into an awesome 3 bedroom apartment
• Hiked Mount Marcy with Marco (our biggest hiking challenge as of yet!)
• Took in another foster child, Little Laney
• Had an awesome Gender Reveal party
• Went on a beautiful anniversary/baby moon vacation
• Sent another one of our kids home, Later little Laney
• GOT MARRIED!
• Got a new position at my current company
• Had the best Baby Shower anyone could have asked for
• Welcomed my new little niece Jezenia to the world
• Experienced the most glorious day of my life, the day Levi and Noah were born.
• Learned how to adjust to living life after Callie loses her job and we no longer have a combined 6 figure income, 2 new babies, and bio family issues with Mary
• Used my coping skills to tackle depression and overcome it
• Learned that Mary’s case was going to TPR and that we could potentially be adopting her
• Started the next part of our journey and lives together

This year has been full of learning, of loving, of losing, and of living.  It has been a year of gaining, of guarding, of giving, and of gratitude.  We have seen who is steadfast and strong in our lives, and who is fleeting and fading.  We have cried and carried on, and we have crashed and collapsed and constructed ourselves once more.  This year has brought us closer to each other and closer to God.  It has cemented the fact that we are a family, through and through, and like any other Great American Family, we struggle and we lose and we win and we are rewarded, and usually not in that order, and mostly inconsistently, but we’re alive.  And we’re healthy, and we’re happy, and we’re hopeful.  And we get to share it with you all. So here’s to another year of an awesome life, shared with really cool people (that would be you all!), right here in this space.  Thanks WP for allowing so many the simple pleasure or writing, and sharing, and learning…Cheers!