Reflecting on a decade.

Midnight tonight marks the start of a new decade on the calendars. I was just thinking back to where I was 10 years ago. Or rather who I was, and what I was up to at that point. And then following the imaginary path in my head that has brought me to this moment.

Aaron and I were living in Elgin Illinois and we had just brought home our oldest daughter, Madie from the hospital. We spent a quiet New Years at home with Aaron's parents. Aaron and I had just been married over a year at that point and Jake was roughly 18 months old. We were so young, and still trying to figure out who we were and what we wanted from this life we had joined together. While so many of our friends were on the traditional path, they graduated college, secured a career, then got married, and then had children. We were doing things out of sequence, but we were no less happy back then. Shortly after the new year Aaron was offered a job with Robert Mondavi and that set our feet on a firm foundation. We moved to our own home in Sycamore and deepened our roots at Cornerstone UMC. By the middle of 2001 we became a family of 5 when we added Noah to our family. Our bank account may not have but our faith deepened and grew by leaps and bounds as did our marriage and our outlook on our future.

By 2004 we found that we were ready to purchase our first home and wanted to be near family. We decided to weigh our options and ended up moving here to Bethel in Ohio to be closer to Aaron's family. The thrill of our own home was so exciting! We had visions for every room, some of which we are still working on, but that is the joy of home ownership. Taking your time and yes, even redoing what you finished. But my beautiful 103 year old brick casa is more than a house, it is our home. Every appliance that I have replaced (all of them) is ours. All the flooring we replaced, (all of it) is ours. Every cabinet that we installed (with our hands) is ours. Every flower that Aaron has planted for my enjoyment (tons!) is ours.
We soon had the fear of neither of us working while discoverying that we were going to be adding another member to our family, followed by the blessing of a what we called a temporary job becoming our bread and butter for nearly 5 years now. Annika joined us in 2005 rounding our family out at an even 6 members. We officially became a tribe at that point. Within a year I found myself enrolled in college for some degree. I changed my major a few times but I am "this" close to being done. Aaron soon followed and majored in theology.
We found ourselves bouncing from church to church. Something that I swore we were not going to do when we moved. But I soon learned that just like a car, pet, favorite sweater, you can never have a church that is "just" like the one you moved from. We spent some time at Aaron's dads church. We helped with the youth and children's programs. This brought Kaila into our lives and into our home. Life with a teenager is an interesting one. It gave us good practice with our own quickly approaching tween status. Our house is always full, always warm, and always a mess. But it is always full of love.

Here I am, on the eve of a new decade. I have amazing friends to celebrate with, and tons of reasons to call the close of this one a success. I am hopeful in the promise that this next decade is going to be an even greater blessing to our family, to me, and to all those that I love. I am up for the challenge of making it even better!

May all have a blessed New Year and new decade!