A year in review.

Well this may be boring to most of you as you most likely have done the same thing in the last few days, but I have been reflecting on the past year of life. The Wilson's have had an interesting and trying year in 2007. In no particular order because my brain cant handle that much organization.

1. Bought a house and sold a house, eek.


2. Painted most every room in said house for sale, cleaned, scrubbed, and payed two mortgages for six months as the price kept falling falling falling, love the housing market.


3. Moved into new house, former owners are still in it, were supposed to be gone by noon, they are still here, taking the curtain rods down and removing plants from the yard, sigh, didn't like their curtain rods anyway.


4. Speaking of moving, packed and moved and unpacked whole house with help of one adult for 2 hours and three 14 year olds, two girls and one boy for one day. Them was some tuckered out teens but the girls were priceless and Jack was da man of the day.


5. Mom was given narrow odds of surviving a few more weeks, went to Cleveland Clinic and had surgery in spite of prognosis and is doing better now than she has in years. I road tripped up and back this summer in a day for the surgery.


6. Started this blog, yes this is a highlight because once I printed the 'Story of Grace' here it afforded me new ministry opportunities. I got to drive out to southern Illinois and tell this story (my witness) at a revival retreat of sorts at the invitation of a Pastor friend from YMX.


7. Was blessed with the opportunity to give the Sunday sermon once this year, but it was bitter sweet this time around. I felt like this particular message was one I was driven to give, but on the lead up to it things started getting strange. Once it was passed I could see it was time to move on to a new setting. I was done here. I want to be clear, I have no hard feelings toward the church or anyone in it, that's not what it is about, I was just done and need to move on someplace else, I still don't know where that new place is yet or what the new mission will be yet.


8. Gracie has grown so much and changed so much in the last year its not even something I can describe. It will be 3 years since gotcha day come January 10th. Look for an overly mushy emotional blog around that time.


9. Angie and I are still growing up and growing old together and our marriage evolves and grows every year. I do think we are growing old too fast some times though, but that's more of a commentary on Gracie than us.


10. Speaking of my wife "blink.. blink" she has taken a job as a pre-school helper. She works with around 30 four year olds on MWF. It has taken its toll on her this year. She has developed a twitch in her right eye that seems to get worse as the day moves on. She has sudden loud bursts of cursing for no apparent reason. I find here cuddled up on the couch with a bar of chocolate rocking back and forth saying "find a happy place, find a happy place" over and over again. She has begun to recognize these issues and has decided to seek help through a stringent regime of retail therapy usually at places selling those atrocious little quilted purses. I hope she recovers soon.


11. Last Chinese New Year we went to St. Louis to see Gracie's "sisters". It is almost time to make that trip again and I am so looking forward to it. Many of the girls that were adopted with Gracie, from the same province and from the same orphanage and about the same age came home with us all together. We are trying to keep as close of contact with them as is possible since we are scattered all over the country. We get Christmas cards with pictures from most of them every year and we send them to all of them every year. I keep the cards in the safety deposit box so Gracie can have them when she grows up. I have not shared any pictures of the other girls because I don't want to violate anyone else's privacy but I might ask for permission from a few of them to share their princesses with you sometime in the future.


12. As for my personal life, nothing too notable here. I have had some pruning take place that has strained some relationships with some friends. I think this has come to an end now and my old friends are still around and things are once again normal. Some people I believe have chosen to leave us behind but right now I am okay with that too. I have struggled through some issues of anxiety and depression that are still making their presence known on my physical body but this is not something new and it will soon pass.


13. We are attending a church called Crosspoint and we may or may not join it, time will tell.


14. Cancelled trip to Mexico due to bosses health issues, rescheduled for later, cancelled a trip to Mexico due to bosses health issues, rescheduled for later. Yes I know I said it twice, because I did it twice. Last years vacation will soon become this years vacation. We are scheduled for February 13th right now. The day before our 16th anniversary. I hope we spend it on the beach.


15. All in all this has been a good year, we have a wonderful new home in a marvelous new place with awesome new neighbors. We have be blessed beyond any good reason. So with this I will just say Happy New Year and to God be the Glory, Amen.