Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all! As we welcome 2013 it is hard not to look back on the year that we have said goodbye to and look forward to the year a head of us without a lot of emotion.  I have contemplated this going and coming over the last week or two; thinking about what 2012 really was, not knowing last January that a little baby girl would be born to us, we would purchase a new home and that the growth of our little Lillian would far surpass our expectations.  Now looking back I believe last year was a year of BIRTH.  Not just birth of the babe but of many other kinds.  Looking back that seems to be the over whelming theme which leads me to question what this year's theme will be?  What will I be awed by next December, thinking, I cannot believe......? Many thoughts and emotions crossed my mind about the possibilities of this year to come and after a few tears I am choosing my theme, our theme for the year.  INSPIRATION.    

The birth of a baby is one of the most amazing things in life, if not the most amazing. A true miracle, however I have to admit there has been some sadness in the house.  We have dearly missed our friends out west, the traditions we created over the 9 years we were there and the ability to climb to the top of a mountain or to wade in the sea in a little more than an hour's drive.  We continue to maintain those friendships out west but through the distance it is hard to create those moments making dinner together, or laughter over our favorite bottle of wine or at our favorite dessert place.  We have missed the growth of their children and the moments that you cannot gain by talking about it over the phone.   We have missed the ability to create.  Not that we cannot do that here, but instead that life was very full with a little one on the way, a little one paving the way and a search for a new home.  

We have cherished the time spent with friends and family here.  We have no regrets as to whether we made the right choice to be close to family.  We have been able to celebrate birthdays, gush about our kids in person and the new things they are doing and learning, and be there for just your everyday Sunday meal, to sit across from each other and just be together.  It has become even more obvious of the right choice as it has become harder and harder for my mom to talk, use the right words, find the right words or understand your words.  And so we continue to cherish the time we can just be together and laugh at the kids or the ridiculous things of the day without saying a whole lot.

And so with both the ying and the yang of emotion I am going to embrace this year ahead of us .  Looking at the challenges, the happiness and the sadness with INSPIRATION in mind.  

And I challenge you to do the same, what will you be inspired by? how will you use that inspiration? How do you want to feel next December, looking back at 2013?