2011: In retrospect

As I lay in bed this morning, grateful for the new year of 2012, I started thinking about all that had happened in 2011. It seems that Charles Dickens summed it up best when he said in A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Though it was a difficult year for my family, it was also one of the best.

DAD, OUR HERO
Since my husband had been trying to pass the Bar exam while holding down a part-time job at the same time, life was difficult. Though we were grateful for the work he had attained, it was a constant balancing act. He had tried more than once to pass, only missing the mark by only a few percentage points. In any other class, his scores would have been considered an 'A+,' but still it was not passing. Yet, he was our family's hero and my children and I cherished the time we spent with him.

SACRIFICES
I started the year off with a weekend cleaning job and babysitting a three and five-year-old eight plus hours a day, three days a week. I cleaned houses on my days off until I was run ragged. Needless to say, the cleaning jobs gave me a greater appreciation for my orderly home and lasted only a few months. On the other hand, the babysitting job was hard on me as well as my family, lasting six months.

THE SUMMER OF QUILTS
By the time school was out, my oldest daughter was in Young Women's and was recruited by her Beehive leader to learn to make a patchwork quilt. Her project was contagious and soon my younger children and I began our own projects. It became what we now call "the Summer of Quilts." By the Fall, I had made my first patchwork quilt and now I consider quilting a hobby.

THE MORMON VOICE
By July, I started feeling depressed and regretted that I did not study a more practical major when I was at BYU, way back when. My youngest sister had had a thriving career in nursing and always made a good living. Instead, I studied journalism because that was what I loved. At the beginning of July, I got a call from the Stake Public Affairs director. He had heard about my writing skills and invited me to help in the stake's public affairs. I was dumbfounded since I knew it was a message from the Lord telling me that studying journalism was a part of His plan which only prepared me to help further the Work.

Soon the assignment became a calling on the Richmond Stake Public Affairs Committee as the writer in the group. A month later, I was invited by the Houston Chronicle to write a Mormon blog in their Belief Section. After attaining permission from the Church authorities in Salt Lake, the Mormon Voice blog was born. The only catch was that I would not receive any monetary compensation. Every time I applied for a job that I was more than qualified for, it always fell through. I realized the Lord needed me to do His work and not my own. Ironically, by the end of the year, I received more money through others' generosity than I could have earned in any normal job.

ABBY
As school started back up in the Fall, my youngest daughter had a best friend named Abby that she could not live without. Since Abby's mom worked a full eight-hour day, we volunteered to have Abby come over every day after school. Abby and my daughter were (and still are) inseparable, going to Girl Scouts, Trick-or-Treating, and youth activities together at Church. My daughter has never been happier when Abby is around.

BUGSY
After months of begging, my youngest daughter got her wish on Labor Day of getting a guinea pig, who she named Bugsy. It was a male and was bigger than we realized. He was smaller than a chinchilla, but bigger than a hamster. He was brown with a white patch over one eye and a black one over the other. We were surprised that she never got bored with him and were pleased at how she has learned to be responsible with his care. We always laughed when Bugsy squealed like a little piglet and purred, similar to a cat. Though at first some of us were apprehensive, we have grown to love that little guy and hope he lives for a very long time.

DEPRESSION
In early November, we got word that my husband had again not passed the Bar exam. I realized we had another hard six months ahead of us. He would be taking the grueling Bar exam again in February. That meant another three months of studying and then three more months of waiting for the results. It was more than I could take. Right before Thanksgiving, I spiraled into a deep depression, unable to get out of bed without a Priesthood blessing. After that, things began to improve little my little as I got the help I needed as well as the extra strength from the Lord.

CHRISTMAS 2011
As December rolled around, I began getting better and better every day. One day, at my husband and son's suggestion, I got my hair cut short and went blond! I had never felt better, especially when, no matter where I went, people told me I looked like Marilyn Monroe! That was one of the best cures to jump-start my moods back to normal. Then a week before Christmas, my parents drove down from Utah, spending a week with us. My kids said that was the best Christmas we ever had.

From all our experiences in the past year, my family is closer to each other and to God. Now I think we are ready for whatever 2012 sends our way.