Closing Out A Decade

Later on this week, I will be closing out my 20's and embarking on a new decade of my life.  For whatever strange reason these milestone birthday's leave one reflecting on their life.  What have I accomplished?  Where are we headed?  Have I done the things I have wanted to do?  Do I have any regrets?

As I reflect back on the decade behind me, I am so grateful. I could not have asked for a better 20's to fit into my vision for my life. I met and married a loving, hard working man who is the most amazing father to our children. Carried and gave birth to a son and daughter, saw a childhood dream fulfilled by welcoming home a son and daughter through adoption. Moved into our "forever" home.  I got the job I always wanted as a stay at home mom!  Been privileged to travel to some pretty amazing places! Truly, all of my dreams have come true! My 20's have been incredible and amazing! I bid them a well farewell!

I know that some women really struggle with saying goodbye to their 20's. That has not been the case for me at all. In fact I am pretty sure I will struggle much more with the 40's because I know those years hold the time frame that my babies will start leaving the nest. But those days are still far off for now, so I can focus on the 30's. I've actually for several years looked forward to being in my 30's. I guess I felt like the phase we are in life has always been a few years beyond where most 20 year old's are. But I look forward to feeling more "settled" in our 30's. What I mean by that is it feels like we've always had to work super hard TOWARDS something in our 20's.  Work hard to get through college. Work hard to pay off college.  Work hard so I can quit working and have a baby. Work hard to buy a bigger house.  Work hard to adopt. Work hard to build our savings. Work hard to adopt. Work hard towards retirement. Work hard to build your career.  It's been a decade of very hard work on our parts to accomplish everything we've wanted.

And not to say that work stops as we're in our 30's because let me tell you, we still have a pretty extravagant list of goals going forward It's just that things don't feel as urgent as they used to.  We aren't holding our breath every month hoping the money coming in each month will be just enough to get us by.  We're not stressing about career paths anymore because finally it seems like everything has fallen into place there.  We don't have to stress about buying the next house because we've found our "forever" home.  We don't have to stress about the next baby because our family feels perfect the way it is and whether it stays the way it is today or it grows further along down the road, it doesn't feel like a decision that needs to be rushed or worried about for today.

I'm now quite literally in the phase of life where I've become the soccer mom who is carting the kids around from one activity to the next, constantly checking the calendar to make sure I haven't missed something that needs to be done. And I'm not sure when or how I got to this phase of life.  But it's not a bad phase, just different, but a good different.  Life genuinely just feels good right now, better than I ever thought or expected!  I don't know what the next ten years will hold for my life.  I hope it will hold more fun and happy days than hard days.  I know no matter what life throws at me, I have an amazing partner at my side through it all.  I have four beautiful and wonderful children that I have the privilege to watch grow from toddlers and preschoolers into kids and by the end of this decade we'll be parenting teens - eek!

Life is ever changing and I embrace those changes wholeheartedly. I am excited for everything that is to come. I really hope (and I know Peter does too) that as things become "easier" for us on building our home life that we can begin to build our lives outward focused more and more.  God has put various things such as orphan care, adoption and foster care, Ethiopia missions, pregnancy crisis, teenagers in hard places etc on our hearts for a greater purpose than what we've done thus far. I know there are pages in the stories of our lives that haven't even been written yet!  But our purpose on this earth is to accomplish much more than building a home and family for ourselves. I don't know where the paths will lead but I know that I want to spend a lot of time pursuing these passions in the years ahead!

Farewell to a wonderful journey 20's!  I don't think I would have changed a thing about you! 30's I am ready and eagerly anticipating all the memories, experiences, and stories to come!  Lets do this!