Saturday, December 31, 2011

Adieu - a recap

Extra good luck for the new year if I spelled that right?

2011 has been an interesting year. My husband and I keep joking that if we can survive this year, we can survive anything. And lo and behold, we appear to have survived.

I realize I may be stating this prematurely, seeing as it is only 7:19 in the evening on the last day of 2011 as I write this. But in light of the happenings of the past year I think that it is both safe and fair to say that there is nothing that is statistically likely to happen to us in the next 4 hours and 40 minutes that will trump any of the other events of the year. So, a brief recap:

January/February: Dearest's divorce went through and we began to stop paying the bank for the house. It was, for us, like a stone off our chests. We could breathe easier, even if financial things were tight.

March: Dearest quit his job suddenly, unable to withstand the environment he was working in. He'd hung around with the company since before it was what it is today, moving with the owners like a piece of furniture, and that was exactly how they saw and treated him. Two days after he quit, his re-hire was negotiated because his boss realized just how much the company needed him.

April: We set the official date for our wedding - May 25th. A few days later we set the date for his surgery - May 2nd - and he promised me that the surgery wouldn't interfere with the wedding.

May: On the 2nd we had his surgery and the hospital stay was longer than expected. The next two weeks were allright, his pain somewhat controlled by the vikodin. On the 25th we were married despite the fact that he'd just run out of meds. He even set his cane aside so it wouldn't be in the video. He did his best to make it a wonderful day for me, and it was.

June-September: Recovery was an up-and down process due to the soy allergy we only recently caught. Any time we'd think he'd be getting better, he'd suddenly take a turn for the worse. The medications he was on drove him to the brink of insanity, almost hurtling me over the edge in the process.

October: We finally started to see some real progress, starting when we began to look at the things he was eating as a possible cause of all the issues. We got a new car, and began considering finally moving out of the house.

November/December: Stressors that were adding to the mental burden we've been carrying have one by one begun to stop being significant. Things, finally, are really looking up.

It's been a year of pain for us; physical pain for my darling with his surgery and his soy allergy and the various complications in his recovery, as well as mental and emotional pain for both of us throughout his recovery and all of the things that happened as a consequence of him essentially not having any brainpower for the better part of 8 months. In 2011 there were only a few bright spots, and they were far between. It has been a dismal, difficult, painful year for us. However, we have survived and we choose now to look forward.

We start this year with many blessings, opportunities on the horizon, and I have the audacity to think that some of them may be rewards for our perseverance this past year. We will wake up tomorrow, as we have for the past few nights, in our new home. We're not fully moved in yet but it is our new home regardless of whether all of our possessions are here. Our new year begins with an extra day together, extra time to spend enjoying each other's company and exploring our new neighborhood. Within the next week my husband will see his new employment agreement and the process by which his company will be acquired by a larger, much more successful company will begin - which most likely means our financial situation will improve significantly and give us more breathing room.

We have made a few important decisions about the coming year, decisions that will help us make progress in our journey. I suppose you can say we've had our aha moment, though not in a moment. Our aha moment has taken several months for us to begin to see, but now that we are seeing it we have the power to move onward and upward.

So that's our recap. Tonight, to celebrate our first new year's eve as a married couple, we went to the Irish pub down the street for dinner. We didn't expect the wonderful live music, but that just made it better. Now we're sitting in our livingroom, waiting for the fireworks to start. Since we are going to be able to see them from our comfy chairs by the fireplace, there's no reason not to watch.

With a sigh of relief I bid adieu to the old year, and welcome to the new.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so glad things are looking up for you. Every one here says you look wonderfully happy and I cannot disagree with them at all. We miss you terribly and look forward to your first visit back home, whenever that may be, but in the mean time we praise God for the joy you have now and pray fervently that in His strength it continues for the rest of this wonderful year of blessing. I love you.

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