2021 was....interesting... and certainly didn't end calmly for our family. As the new year begins, I am taking time to reflect on the past and set intentions for the year ahead.

In November, Elliott was getting cast for his CP and was rocking it, per usual. We have been continually blown away by Colorado Children's Hospital and its staff. Elliott looked forward to picking out a new color cast every week and was always excited to return to see his doctors. His body adapted quickly to the casting process, so he didn't have to do more than three weeks' worth before we started physical therapy and waited for his new AFO brace to arrive.

Then, one week before Thanksgiving, we had to make an Emergency room run, but this time for Harper. We were at our friend’s house when Harper touched the fireplace that had no protection on the glass. She ended up with severe second-degree burns on the palms of both of her hands. The only way to protect her hands from infection while the skin blistered over and the new skin grew in was to cast her. Elliott had just picked pink for his final cast, and it seemed only appropriate that they match, so Harper got pink, too. This whole ordeal was so ridiculous that it became comical. We turned it into a joke and called our kids the "casted crew."

Two kids, three casts, one roof. Absolute madness.

Luckily for Harper, in less than two weeks, her hands were completely healed, and Elliott was able to get his final cast off the same week, so the 'casted crew' was relatively short-lived, and we were back in action by mid-December, just in time for Christmas.

Over the next few weeks, we celebrated Christmas early in Colorado Springs with Nathan's side of the family & then hosted my parents, our friend Shanky & my cousin Clay at our house for Christmas. It was jam-packed and lots of fun all around.

I decided to throw a pretty big Christmas Soirée, and as fun as it was, it turned out to be a Covid super-spreader event for the ominous variant that is so rampant around the world right now. So Covid took each of our family members out, one by one, over the week after Christmas, along with a handful of party guests.

As if quarantining with seven sick people wasn't chaotic enough, it was also during this time that the massive Marshall Fire took place less than three miles away from our house. We watched with anticipation, waiting to see what the winds would do next and which direction the fire was headed. We packed up our house in a fury, trying to grab important items, praying that the house we'd moved into less than 6 months ago wouldn't turn to ash.

The red line is the evacuation line, and the red dot is our house.

Our neighborhood stayed right on the evacuation line for the night, and the wind never turned the fires toward us; however, over 1,000 other homes were not so lucky. As I sat in my bedroom and watched the white snow fall less than 24 hours after this horrific fire, I felt I had a renewed sense of gratitude & purpose.

Thousands of people woke up on the morning of December 30th with no reason to think they would lose everything they owned. Two houses that Nathan and I put offers on (before we got our current house) burned to the ground. Why? I can't help but keep asking myself why. Why others? Why not us? When you face something of this magnitude right in your backyard, it's impossible not to ask these questions and want to do something about it.

The community has come together in truly beautiful ways to support the victims and businesses affected by the fires, and I am also going to share some opportunities here to give back if you feel so inclined.

In addition to giving back, I am also going into this new year with a perspective shift that I desperately needed.

I was harshly reminded this holiday season that nothing in life is guaranteed. In today's climate, it's easy to complain and find most things challenging. It's easy for life's heaviness to take over.

Fight against that.

Donate where you can. Journal when you feel motivated. Go to a yoga class or sit silently and take deep breaths. Make a bubble bath. Scream. Pour yourself a glass of wine or a warm cup of tea. Remind yourself that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger & that there can be blessings in the mess, if you choose to see them.

So, I am going into the new year with a spirit of gratitude for everything I have and the people in my life. I am choosing to turn sadness and exhaustion into renewed energy & motivation.

I challenge you to do the same.

We have made it to 2022, people. Let's make it a year to remember, for the better!