Adieu 2008

I’m taking a break from the rambling posts about our winter weather/Christmas joy to bid farewell to the year 2008. I was pretty sure it had been an interesting year, but honestly I couldn’t remember all of it. Pulling the calendar off the wall, I flipped back to remind myself of the little details that had filled my year. Here’s what I found:

January 2008 brought the Z-Monsters forth birthday. We celebrated it like no other four-year-olds birthday because we knew she and her sister, The Destroyer, would be returning to their mother. They did so in April. I cried when they left. I really did. Girl cried too. Beloved breathed a sigh of relief, looked at the two of us as if we’d lost our minds and went back to his life, sans foster daughters. It’s funny how ones perspective changes with time and how we can laugh now at the trials and tribulations those wee, tiny tyrants drug us through. We don’t see them as often as we’d like, but at least we know that they are doing well and that Birth-Mom is holding her own.

2008 was also the year of the orthodontist – again. If you’ve ever had more than one child with braces, then you feel my pain. If you’ve ever had to drive two hours to pick up a child and take them to the orthodontist, than sister, I owe you a drink.

It was the year when I started writing book reviews for Litfuse, the year my best friend published her first book and the year I started writing about fitness. 2008 was also the year that I started two different stories, but never completed them. The main character of the first one still yells at me whenever she’s given the chance. Maybe this year…

There were biology classes, piano lessons, writers group. Girl worked at Bible Club, she worked at kids camp and she drank gallons of Starbucks. I spent hour after hour driving, driving, driving girl in 2008. It was also the first year that Girl left home for a solid week without her Momma, her Daddy, or her over-protective brother along for the ride. It was a long week. She danced at the Regency Ball and the graduation ball. She danced with boys, much to her brother’s dismay. Then she aced her CAT and smiled to realize that homeschool is nearly finished.

Boy worked at camp. He studied Greek. He brought his stinky laundry home once a month and reminded us of youth and dreams and crazy boy things. Boy fell in love, checked that duty off his list and was side-swiped when girl-who-won’t-be-named wasn’t as serious as he was. Poor Boy. A lesson was learned and a song added to his anthology of music written and sung. Boy recorded his first CD. He also wrote a song for his father, which makes his mother weep.

Beloved and I escaped to the beach and were reminded of the sweetness of when it was just the two of us. He’s my life you know. He makes it all tick. We are going to miss the children when they finally start their adult lives, but we’ll survive because we have each other.

2008 brought me my first job outside the house in nearly seventeen years. I was scared. I was nervous. After five months of employment, I still delight in my work and with those I work with. Someone made a comment to me about my job being “a dead-end job” . I just blinked at her. She doesn’t understand that this is more than a job to me. It’s a way of changing a woman’s life, of helping her to see her potential, of lifting her up. Maybe my little part-time job won’t change the world, but it will change lives. I think that rocks!

And I ran. I ran for the first time in years. I ran a mile. Then I ran two. Three was not far behind. 2008 was the year of the runner and I think 2009 will be the year of the 5K, the 10K and maybe, gulp, the half-marathon?

In 2008 my friends battled tumors, heart-breaks, and children. They struggled with health issues, marital problems, and sick and elderly parents. My friends lost weight, ran miles, and had hysterectomies. I made them laugh, I drove their mothers around, I cried when they cried and offered to beat up those who hurt them. 2008 was a great year for friendships and I was indeed blessed.

So, I bid you adieu 2008. You’ve brought me more smiles than tears and in retrospect I suppose that’s all that really matters.

Happy New Year!