Year in Review: Favorite Moments

Happy New Year!! I have always loved New Year's Eve. I should probably be prepping for a small gathering tonight, but I thought I'd take a few moments to update the blog and count my blessings. Thanks so much for reading Farm-Raised this year. Being able to share our lives here is so much fun. And as Anais Nin said, "we write to taste life twice." I guess I'm greedy in that way. :-) For posterity, here are a few highlights from 2013:

1. Eli and I made macaroons. This was quite a feat!

2. We baptized all three kids at St. Paul Lutheran Church and celebrated with dozens of friends, family members, and a backyard bounce house! I am so thankful for our amazing faith community and our observant, faithful family. I know I say it all the time, but I really feel that we've won the lottery when it comes to family and community and an incredible support system.

3. Jake and I went to Rome to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. It was amazing. I love my husband. I love to eat. I love to travel. The combination of the three was stunning!

4. I always love Wine to Water, which we put on for the fifth year this past November. I love working with my sister-in-law Tesi and our amazing community and family. We raised nearly $15,000 for The Adventure Project and had a blast!

5. After toiling on a book and then a book proposal, I signed with a literary agent! This happened in June and was a huge thrill. Fingers crossed that we get a book deal this coming year! I also got to write for a few new publications, worked with a great group of people at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and continued to love getting to know people in our community through the Radish and the Gold Book. Jake also started at a new school this year. Many viewed this as a promotion…good job, honey!

6. I got to travel to Dallas to see three of my favorite friends and their babes, Hinsdale for our annual Mommapalooza weekend, Milwaukee for a reunion of our precious adoption community, took a couple of trips to Chicago with Jake and family, and enjoyed out-of-town guests at our casa. These reunions with old friends absolutely revive my soul. I am thankful for those I got to see in 2013 and hope to see more in 2014!

7. Also to celebrate our 10th anniversary, Jake staged the most amazing surprise Poetry Party. (This actually happened at the end of 2012, but I'm including it here because I still can't stop thinking about it and I don't think I ever blogged about it.) He completely shocked me by asking some of our favorite friends to come to our house and read poetry aloud to the group of us. I still get teary thinking about the poems they read and the love they shared. Sigh…

8. Oliver turned 9 and started 3rd grade. Elihu spent most of 2013 as a 6-year-old and began 1st grade in the fall. Sintayehu turned 3 last January and enjoyed preschool two days a week. All three provided the most intense challenges and miraculous joy this year. I wouldn't say that motherhood has gotten any easier, but it as profound and gratifying as ever.

9.  We laughed a lot this year. One of last year's resolutions was to cultivate more joy in my life. I did my best to take myself less seriously and have more fun. I'm a work in progress, but having three little ones sure does help!

10. This is big and perhaps a bit abstract, but something incredible happened over the past year: A peace has fallen over our household. I have revealed to you before how Jake and I love to hope and dream and pray for new adventures…we've even hatched a few escape plans since landing here in 2007. However, something shifted in 2013 and I can honestly say that I am content here in the Quad Cities. In my bones, I feel like we are where we're meant to be at this moment. After searching for this peace for over six years, a deep satisfaction and sense of home has enveloped us and I am so, so grateful.