Goodbye 2018

We're in the last week of 2018 and you can always count on a handful of things to happen with certainty around this time every year. 

1) I wonder with genuine shock where the year went. I know 365 days have passed, just like most every other year, but since becoming a parent it feels like it's only been three or four months since last Christmas and I'm not sure where the other eight months went.

2) I try to remember exactly the last time I ate a vegetable or drank something that wasn't coffee or wine.

3) I pause to reflect on what exactly happened that made the year fly by in such a blur. 

2017 was a much easier year to sum up than 2018. It was a year of big changes. It was the year Ez started school, our first year in Sacramento, and Joe's first year working from home. We went on four Disney trips, including our first family trip to Disney World. 2017 was a GOOD year, and I remember saying that 2018 would have big shoes to fill. I know this is the part where I'm supposed to say 2018 exceeded my expectations. 

It didn't. 

Now that the dust has settled a bit, I can say that 2018 was a year of hard work. It was a year that a lot of my friends and family dealt with major health issues, received awful news, and we had an unexpected death in our family. 

Joe got a crazy throat infection that lasted on and off for three and a half months and included a few Urgent Care trips, two ER visits, one ambulance ride, a whole lot of blood, and, eventually, the removal of his tonsils. Both Ez and Declan were diagnosed with autism, and that lead to a whole lot of paperwork, meetings, assessments, administrative craziness, health insurance battles, and a schedule that went from fairly laid back to extremely regimented and intense (we're talking two to three dropoffs between 8 am and noon, Monday through Friday). "Crazy" is the first word that comes to mind when I think of 2018. 

But some years just can't be summed up with one word, or one sentence even. 

2018 was the year that we learned more than ever that as a family we can lean on each other and depend on each other when we're at our weakest. In between the doctor visits and paperwork and phone calls, we spent more intentional time than ever as a family. We blasted Happy and Imagine Dragons and we danced and ran circles through the house. We splashed in the river on hot summer days, swung in our hammock on warm evenings, visited every pumpkin patch within a thirty mile radius, walked to our neighborhood playgrounds nearly nightly, and enjoyed each other's company to the max. Ez and I journeyed across the country and to Europe. My sisters and I were reunited for the first time since my wedding in 2016. Decky got lots of one on one time with Daddy and Grandma. It was the year of bird watching and Muppet Babies and a resurgence in Cars popularity. 

Good is not the first word I think of when it comes to 2018, but it's been good where it matters. We live in a place that we love. We didn't move (always a big deal in our little family). And, most important, we have each other. 

We learned that hard times can make us stronger, both individually and as a family. Joe took his health scare and turned it around into motivation to become healthier than ever. Ez started ABA in the summer and his progress, especially in communication, felt tremendous and instantaneous. Decky started ABA just this month and I have complete faith that he'll grow in leaps and bounds over the next few months.  I learned that I can be a fighter when I need to, something that is normally so far beyond my personality type, and something that will probably come in handy time and again as the boys and I navigate all the school decisions that we'll face in the coming years. 

So we're heading into 2019 full of gratitude for the big things that mean so much, the little things that have turned into cherished memories, and faith that all the work we've put into 2018 will flourish in 2019.

Cheers to surviving 2018, and cheers to health, happiness, and the realization of your wildest dreams in 2019 🎉

On that note, I'll leave you with this little reminder that time moves way too fast - one whole year of the Craig Bros growing up, bonding, fighting, and adventuring together: