5 Years

Joel has been cancer free for 5 years, today.  Most of you know about that time in our lives.  It wasn't fun.  Joel's diagnosis marked the beginning of a very tough year that included a tumultuous pregnancy, the death of my grandma, Carter born 4.5 weeks early, and my childhood best friend losing her fight with cancer.  The year from Hell ended with me quitting my job literally the day before I was supposed to go back.  It was intense.

And here we are, 5 years later.  Joel's cancer turned out to be a blip on the radar of our life, and after 5 years of monitoring, he is 'cured.'  Our Carter, who was constant Action in utero, has been a mellow, hilarious, and joyful little boy.   (And is currently learning independence and testing his limits.  Yes, he is normal!)  Our Bigs are healthy and happy, and now, we are thrilled to be adding to our family through adoption.

Speaking of which, today we received our long awaited court date for our daughter to be in Ethiopia.  You can read about it over here.  Just too weird to be coincidence.  We feel .  .  . what?  Thankful?  Grateful?  Blessed?  Yes, but not even close.  All of those things seem so trite and cliche.  All in all, we had a lot to celebrate today.  And we did.  A nice, quiet, dinner- just the 5 of us.  It was lovely (except for the ice cream that never did actually freeze), and we all talked about memories over the past 5 years and so many things to look forward to.  Here's to so many more years of loving and laughing!