We're a clan of crazy ones!

This time last year, somehow I'd pulled off Christmas for my kids. I have no recollection of it. And even as I reminisced with my husband last night, I still have no recollection of it. See, I was still recovering from a very traumatic and major rotator surgery that ended up in ensuing complications, including additional hospital nights for a seizure and blocked bowels (two separate stays). I was so medicated, I don't even recall Christmas. I couldn't even make Christmas dinner with one arm completely immobilized and the other one so tired from doing everything else. I hadn't even started PT yet. I was useless.

But I do remember the drive back home to KC on Dec. 27. I was preparing for a job interview after the New Year, and I was so nervous. I wasn't feeling the change, I wasn't excited about it, I was just trying to put a bandaid on a horrible situation. My husband said, "If we're going to make a change, let's make a big one and move!" Move? Where? "How about Arizona?"

I laughed. We'd never even BEEN to Arizona. I started looking at homes on my phone in suburbs of Phoenix and felt a tingle in my spine. "I guess I'm not opposed to it," I replied.

On January 7, he got a job offer as a store manager in Phoenix. It was that crazy fast. We started our scenario planning - he'd move ahead, we'd stay and come after school got out. We hated that idea. But there was no way I'd get a job in my field before he left in February.

Only, I did. A great one. And it was a total God thing. You can read that story here.

One year later, looking back on 2014, it's insane what's happened. I'm doing unassisted pull-ups and leading people in life-changing workouts. We have this beautiful home we adore, that brings me joy every time I step into it. I wake up to sun pouring in our windows almost every day. I have a mountain outside my bedroom window that I hiked with my son last week -- the son who for 12 years, has been on medication every day of his life until we moved here. Since then, we've run 5Ks together, and hiked up a mountain. We're slowing inching our way out of medical bills. We have a church that we LOVE, and a pastor who is our dearest friend. The kids are starting a new, private school after break that we never thought we'd get into, but then two spots in their grades opened up. The Kansas City Royals are American League Champions, and were ONE OUT away from being World Champions. I finished grad school and am getting ready to teach my first class as a college professor. I mean, come on....crazy cool year.

There's no doubt in my mind that THIS is where we are supposed to be. We've learned so much about ourselves, our kids, our God, our abilities, and our inner peace with this move. When I was serving dinner last night, that I'd prepared with my own TWO hands, I teared up. It seems so silly to be so happy about making Christmas dinner. But as I looked over at my amazing little family sitting at my Grandmother's table (whom we lost this year, too), candles on our Swedish Christmas tree lit, the mountain outside the window with the sun setting behind it, I just couldn't keep the smiling tears off my face. It was a BIG year. A year that taught us the world about trust, faith, hope and above all, love. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

We're crazy like that.