What a year 2012 was! It started when Derek had to go to Wisconsin for training for work as soon as the new year began. Having been pretty much thrown into his new position and didn't really have an option to not do it, we were uncertain of what the future would hold, or what the new position would mean for him. And knowing that he would have to take several trips to Wisconsin early in the year was not appealing to either of us.
While the weeks that he was away were tough for us all, we survived :) As I knew we would. And his new position, while it has been stressful for him, its also been quite a blessing, and he really enjoys his job and his boss loves him. He earned several certifications over the year, and is now extremely important and valuable to his team at work. So there's no doubt that his job is secure! And, with his certifications now, if for any reason he decided to change jobs, he would be hired quickly.
I am quite proud of him and all he has accomplished and how hard he works and his work ethic!
Continuing on with the year. Jenny then got sick and for an entire month it seemed like time stood still. Everything revolved around our ability to be able to get to Portland to see Jenny and support the family. It didn't happen nearly enough since it was the middle of cold/flu season, and with Jadon in preschool, we always had colds. We didn't want to spread our germs and risk spreading anything to Jenny and complicating her situation. We did everything humanly possible to keep from getting sick- washed our hands incessantly, I was bleaching a lot, we stayed home a lot to avoid germs. It helped, and after the first couple weeks we didn't have any more colds amazingly, and weirdly didn't get anymore until the first week of June!
By the grace of God, Jenny thankfully got better!
It was during that whole thing that Jadon celebrated his 5th birthday. Unfortunately, while Jenny was getting better, Jadon was not. Being the sensitive guy he is, and a little (a lot) on the fearful side, he was a little traumatized by his Aunt's serious illness and the situation. Queue the sleeping problems and serious anxieties. After about a month we realized things were not getting better, and were actually getting worse, he was really bothered by something though he could not tell us exactly what. We decided counseling was needed. And thank goodness! I will highly recommend therapy for children, as it not only helps the children, but also the parents to understand what the kids are going through, which is SO SO SO important! We learned so much about Jadon that we had no idea was going on with him. For example, to him after Jenny's illness, all illnesses, whether a small cold, or pneumonia, etc, became life threatening to him. It didn't matter if it was big or small, they were all catastrophic to him. So we had to learn to make him see that colds were not a big deal. We had to take the power away from the colds. Its still a work in progress, and he still gets worried when a kid in his class is out sick for more than a day, but the improvement is massive.
Just when it seemed like things were finally going to calm down, I had planned to have a fun filled summer for us and the kids with lots of activities, park trips, outings, swimming, etc.... We decided to put our house on the market. So all our fun activities flew out the window when we had to get the house ready for market. Once the house was on the market, I would do my best to keep the house clean and well kept, and before we would leave the house we would clean it and make sure it was show ready in case we got any calls while we were away. It was such a pain, and i'm SO glad that after 35 days we got an offer! I couldn't imagine doing that much longer!
We got the offer while we were in Sunriver with my family over Labor day. What a fun time we had! Jadon talks about Sunriver all the time. I love when good memories are made, especially when so many not so good memories have been made previously.
Unfortunately we couldn't find a place to live in time, and well, you know the story.... we're renting a tiny house that was dumped on by the previous tenants.
It was difficult moving, as I've already blogged about. Apparently Jadon has been having a harder time with the move than we had thought though... my sensitive child. So we are having him go to the counselor again for a few sessions. We are hopeful that once we get moved into our new house, settled, and back into our normal routine that things will improve. Again, we are so thankful for the insight that the counselor provides us with!
Since the move, we've been quite busy. Derek's work has been terribly busy. The kids and I have been busy around here, and random things keep coming up. Our new house is the silver lining in it all, and that is what I focus on!
December was tough. The Sandy Hook shooting was really hard, I think it affected me so deeply since I have a little guy in elementary school. I take him there, assuming he will be safe. Its an elementary school! I still think about that every day, and those poor families, those poor children. Every time I drop Jadon off at school I give him a hug and kiss, I say a pray in my head for the safety of the school and all the people inside it, and then I walk away trusting God to protect my baby boy.
My hopes for this year are different than previous years. I learned a lot last year. I learned a lot about people in my life, about my kids, my family, and what is really important and what's not.
I learned that family is the most important people in your life. Except not everyone in your family is "healthy" for you, which is so sad. I've found that the ones that accept you the way you are the ones that love you unconditionally and will not go behind your back. Additionally, the ones that constantly create drama are not healthy.
This year instead of a personal new years resolution, which I think are pointless because how many times do we ever stick to them? never. This year I made one for my family instead, which I think we are much more likely to stick to. So they include things like- monthly date nights for mommy and daddy; monthly date nights for parents and each kid; be kind to one another; work on ALL manners; have family games nights; less screen time; find a charity to volunteer for.
The charity one is tough since the kids are still small and can't do a lot of things but its important to me because I want the kids to grow up knowing the joy of giving and helping, but I found a blog where a woman lists a bunch of different charities that kids can do. One of them is to sponsor a child, and so we already started doing that. We are sponsoring a little girl in Colombia who is 3 like Avery. Her name is Carolain, and we are looking forward to corresponding with her and getting to know her and watching her grow up and now have access to things she wouldn't have otherwise if we hadn't sponsored her. We'd also like to sponsor a boy who is Jadon's age. After looking at all the little faces online, its just so hard to chose, I want to sponsor them all. For some reason it was easy to pick the girl, but i'm struggling with picking a boy. But anyways, for just over $1 a day, less than your daily Starbucks run, you can also help a child. Check it out at Worldvision. The kids are excited to write a letter, draw pictures and send our pictures. Of course Carolain will be a little young to understand it right now, but someday she will. And someday if we win the lottery we can go visit her. :)
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