Goodbye/ Hello

2011 is officially in the past.  We are 23 hours into 2012. Well, 23 hours, 10 minutes if you want to get technical (and you know we do).

The past few days I have been thinking about everything that happened in 2011.  It was a good year, for the most part- I got a new job that brought me and Dorothy to Beaufort, and Tidal Creek.  I am truly blessed to be part of such a great community of believers.  I have made amazing new friends in church members, coworkers, and people in the community.  I became an uncle to a beautiful, sweet little baby named Emma. I got two new guitars.

But there was a lot of bad.  A lot of pressure and stress was put on our marriage due to circumstances outside our control.  I can't go into it all, but it was rough.  And that was only February.  But we figured, "well at least the worst is over"....  

Three people close to me died this year- a coworker/ college friend who I had talked for hours about a possible job in Beaufort, my mom's best friend who watched me grow up, and a cousin- Brian- who I looked up to, loved- all within two months, all sudden, all tragic.  I am still dealing with it, and I'm going to leave it at that to avoid rambling on about how great each of those people were, and how I miss them deeply all each day.  I will never understand why they had to go then. But

And then there was the accident- which was icing on the cake.  The accident which resulted in waiting 90 days for our car to be totaled,  waiting 90 days for us to be able to even take one step toward moving on.  The accident which shattered my wife's wrist into tiny little pieces.  The accident that should have taken my life and probably hers too.  The accident that made me wake Dorothy up every two hours to give her pain killers so she didn't scream and weap in pain for two weeks.

In 2011 I got blessed.  I also got cursed.

Prayers were answered. Prayers were lifted.

Pain was felt, as was love.

I thank God that I'm alive, while I ask God why others aren't.

So was 2011 the worst year of my life? Was it overall good or bad?  I am not going to say.  But 2011 is over, and I can take a sigh of relief in that.

I look forward to 2012 with bright eyes.  Eyes that are anxious, but road weary.