A Huge Decade of Change for Betty

Image by max_thinks_sees via Flickr

I started out thinking I'd do a year in review. You know, the best and the worst of 2009 kinda post. Then it hit me. Not only has the last year been life changing for me, the Professor, and our kids but this entire decade has been life changing. As I think about the past ten years, visually I'm looking at it in fast forward because it all seemed to happen so fast.

• The professor got his PhD
• I had a miscarriage
• The professor got a tenure track job
• I got pregnant
• We became parents to baby #1, Gavin Patrick
• I moved to part time at my job
• We found Irvington Friends
• I lost my job at Saint Vincent's
• I opened up a private practice
• I had a miscarriage
• I got pregnant by surprise this time
• We had to put Klondike kitty down due to cancer
  
• We became parents to baby #2, Anna Mae
• The practice grew, more therapists, we moved to our own location
• The professor's job became turbulent
• He "went on the market", as they say in the business
• I left my practice for a full time gig in the insurance business - crossed over to the well paying darkside in hopes of keeping our family in Indiana
• The professor was offered a job at Presbyterian College in South Carolina and accepted.
• We looked for a house to live in...found nothing but a tiny little cottage on a beautiful street
• We purged our belongings to fit into the little house
• We said goodbye to all our friends and family
• We became landlords
  
• I quit my job and became a SAHM for a year
• Gavin had a new school to adjust to
  
• The professor had a new job to adjust to
  
• We had a new life to adjust to
• We made new friends and missed the old
  
• Our marriage suffered huge challenges
• I got a new job with an hour commute
• We stopped being landlords
• We traveled many times to Indiana
• We looked at many houses to buy and even put an offer on a couple
• We waited (and are still waiting) for the right house for us
• We learned patience on many levels
• We put our house on the market

And here we are at the end of 2009...

Okay, so maybe all of you shut down before reading the entire list. I forgive you. It really was an exercise for me. Oh, and maybe an opportunity to play the sympathy card a little...just a smidge. Who would have predicted on New Year's Eve 1999, when we were partying "like it's 1999", that all this was in store for us? Certainly not me. Frankly, I'm tired. What I know is that everyone has a list like this. We can not escape change. My list may look like a cake walk to some and hellish to others but it's my list all the same.

So here's to 2010. Which I have personally deemed "The Year of Letting Your Life Speak" (you can thank George Fox for that one). I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year, ya'll.