Monday, January 6, 2014

My year in review: 2013

Last year was quite the year for me, for the whole family really.  Here are some of the highlights.
*We met with geneticists' at Duke to learn more about Riley's RSS condition.  This was a wonderful day, as we found out that Riley has the most mild form of RSS and should not encounter any learning disabilities with it.
*Riley started walking!!  Then she began talking, and forming sentences.  Now she's a regular chatterbox.
*We joined a homeschool co-op.  Hannah and Riley love being a part of this and so do I.  It's a great support system and there's a wide range of homeschooling knowledge within the people there.
*I committed to my first marathon, to take place on April 13th in Raleigh, NC.
*I began the process to be a surrogate, only to find out days after speaking with my potential parents that I was pregnant.
*I graduated!!  A journey I started when we lived in Italy finally came to a close as I received my diploma in May.  As I walked off the stage, Hannah was right there clapping for me.
*David enrolled in school.  I didn't think I'd ever see this.  But he proved me wrong.
*David went from being a logistician to a technician.  This happened right at the 7 month mark for David.  We were, and continue to be, so proud of David.  This is the first time I've seen long term goals in David since he left the army.
*We found out my surprise pregnancy was a boy, making the difficult surprise a little easier to tolerate.
*I had the most unpleasant pregnancy.  It was just hard, unlike the girls'.  I had horrible nausea for almost 5 months.  I had contractions that brought me to a complete stop before 30 weeks.  Running became very difficult.  The pregnancy was just hard.  By 31 weeks, I found out he was already head down and that he was big.  His birth weight of 9 pounds and 6 ounces and 22 inches long proved that my 40 weeks of misery was completely justified and totally worth it!
*David and I participated in helping our church by being a part of a small start up team for a second location.  To be a part of something like this, something selfless and bigger than myself, is good.

As I type these things out, I say to myself "wow, a lot of stuff happened last year"!  And I'm probably forgetting some stuff.  I can't wait to see what 2014 brings for our family.  

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very nice to read... something about everyone. Although not exactly in 2013 an interstate relocation 2 weeks before the start of the year was kind of big. Oh yeah... probably put out of mind... you bought a van :)

Grandpa Bob