A Look Back at 2014 and Looking Forward to 2015!

This is a fun way to look back at the year. You take the first picture and sentence from the first blog entry in each month. It gives a surprisingly good recap. I did take a few extra sentences from a few entries. This was such a year of change in our family. It was filled with some of the biggest trials of my entire life and some amazing blessings. We are working on recovering from the years of living with a child with mental illness and the loss of our daughter from our daily lives. She is safe and we are safe. That is the most important thing. Goldilocks is stable in her very structured new life, and for the first time in years, we are breathing a sigh of relief and resting. I am not sure what 2015 has in store for our family. I suspect there will be great joys and deep sorrows. It is very unlikely that Goldilocks will return to our home in the year 2015. It looks like she may need to be in special placements for the rest of her childhood. Tom Sawyer and Little Red Riding Hood are thriving and are blooming in new ways weekly. They are filled with life and fill my days with joy. Tim has made so many improvements in the last month. I finally can see the healing begin to happen in him. My husband and I continue to be strongly committed to each other and enjoy our time together. Life goes on and we continue to move forward. I am so thankful for my life and family.

January 2014 ~ 

Cheerful

When I sat down to think of a word for our family to focus on this year, many came to mind.

February ~ For the remainder of the school year, we will be studying World War II. 

March ~  This week went better than the last few weeks have gone. The adults (Dad, Grandma and I) in the family decided to make the boundaries around Goldilocks (13) smaller and tighter.

April ~  Goldilocks (13) is still safe and in respite care. She has made it very clear that she does not want to come home. The professionals also agree that she should not be in the home until she gets some intensive help with her emotions. She has stated that she thinks she will hurt someone if she comes home.

May ~ Goldilocks' therapeutic caregiver has decided to go through the extensive training (which she already has but needs to take the classes anyway) and licensing to be a very specialized mental health foster parent.

And

We had a wonderful birthday celebration for Tom Sawyer. 

June ~ We are in the last few days of school and my mind is thinking about summer fun.

July ~ An attitude of gratitude makes all the difference, don't you agree? Do you look at the cup half full or half empty?

 

August ~  Our son Timothy recently passed his first anniversary at the brain injury day program he attends four days a week.

September ~ When I looked at all that was on the schedule for this week, I knew it was going to be a tough week and that we were going to have to adapt and tweak our usual style of schooling to make it through.

October ~ We have attended two major meetings about Goldilocks in the past few weeks. 

November ~ Snow in the first week of November ~ unheard of in North Carolina!

 

December ~ We are in full Nutcracker mode this week in our home. We will be at the theater for 20+ hours this week.

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Blessings, Dawn