2021 Recap

A Few Things I'm Grateful For:

• Celebrating Mom and Dad's 40-year marriage and Dad's health recovery
• Wonderful close friends and family who helped us through Dad's hospital stay
• Lots of great lunches with Sarah and Katherine Claire
• Our dinner talks throughout the year + my first Bedlam football game with Kristin W.
• Solid friendships, self-respect, and resilience that have helped me as I recover from a major loss
  
• Quality time hanging out with my presh niece and nephews!
• Taking Triston, Carter, Jace, and Kyndal for their first driving lessons! =)
• Celebrating Carter's 6th Grade Graduation
• Celebrating loads of birthdays, including the actual birth day of Parker Elizabeth and Katherine Claire!
• A precious Post-It invite from the Miss K to her class's Author's Tea event, where she read a book she wrote about her family
• Feeling very loved and celebrated on my snowed-in birthday thanks to gifts, food, FB posts, texts, calls, a Facetime hangout, and a surprise visit from the Wilson family!
• Having fun and taking concrete steps toward forming better cardio, strength, and meditation habits with Peloton
• Getting a wonderful shout-out from John and Stasi on their podcast (where they read part of my 2020 Christmas letter to them)
• Being contacted by a birth mom who liked my profile (grateful for the way that confirmed some things for me, even though she seems to have changed course now) 
• Celebrating Christmas with so many of the people I love! ❤

Life-Draining Events or Situations:

• Intense grief over losing a beloved friendship, some general loneliness, self-doubt, internal wrestling, and worrying about people I love experiencing pain that I cannot fix or stop
• My lengthy rental car experience, the lack of love and empathy in many conversations on social media, and Dad's hospitalization this summer (and the emotions and hard realities surrounding that)

Life-Giving Moments or Activities:

• Every single conversation or spiritual moment where I felt truly connected with God, with myself, with my friends, and/or with my family! 
• Praying for people as they come to mind and entrusting them to God 
• Hearing the "not guilty" verdict at the end of our jury trial
• Steven Furtick's Green Light at the Red Seasermon 
• Refreshing outdoor walks at Crescent Park 
• Taking a lengthy social media break
• Joining the "Peloton HardCORE" strength group 
• Enjoying my Christmas decor during Peloton workouts from October to December 
• Improving results on my lab tests and blood pressure readings (yay, exercise)
• Allowing myself permission to cry and “feel it all”
• Having grace for those who don’t understand my grief
  
• Moving back to more in-person court hearings (rather than virtual dockets)
• Reading and highlighting through the gospels and writing down key verses and phrases that spoke to me
• Baking and cooking more often
• Blogging! =)

Books Read (or Listened To):

• I read 32 books this year (listed in monthly recaps and pictured below).  My top five favorites were:  Atomic Habits, What is a Girl Worth?, Mindset, Forgiving What You Can’t Forget, and of course, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. 

• I also read through the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) five times… (CEB, NLT 2x, Amplified, and NIV), then I listened through them five more times (KJV, MSG, ESV, GNT, and NIV translations).  This exercise was good for my soul to stay close to Jesus and to grow more familiar with His character, His story, and His disciples.

Podcasts and Shows:

• Favorite podcasts = Annie and Eddie Keep Talking, The Holderness Family Podcast, and Elevation Church
• Favorite shows = Ted Lasso, Blue Bloods, Modern Family, Hawkeye, and WandaVision

Things Created or Accomplished:

• I completed my home study paperwork and my adoption profile scrapbook, then I set up an online profile on an adoption-matching website!
• I built a fun new shelf for my living room, tried cooking several new recipes, met with a grief counselor (Shannon) in person and a nutritional counselor (Adrienne) virtually through Zoom for several months, wrote an adoption reference letter for a friend, helped another friend with an intense job application, helped another friend with an appeal letter, painted a bit, helped my niece build a Lego set and a gingerbread house, finished my Board of Empowerment (full of quotes and photos that inspire me), created a full family portrait drawing for Lindsay, and wrote 182 new blog posts!  ;-)

*This is just a quick summary of my monthly recap posts.  Tomorrow, I'll share my top takeaways or lessons I've learned this year, along with a year-end slideshow and some goals for 2022! ❤