Goodbye, 2008

I’ve been putting this one off for weeks now.   Just not sure how best to sum up the year, I guess. 

In the positive column, and in the simplest terms possible, I’ve still got my wife, she’s healthy again and the four of us got Lucy.  We’ve been talking a lot lately about this time last year — the hospital, the doctors, the surgeries — how surreal it all seems now.  Dawn found some old notes yesterday in her planner as she was transitioning her her new 2009 book that brought back some of the specifics.  I still don’t know how she did it.  I would have thrown in the towel weeks before.  But her strength brought more joy to our lives than I could have ever imagined.  The months between then and now have been some of the richest of my life.  They’ve also been among the most challenging.  If you’ve ever transitioned from man-to-man coverage to a zone defense you know what I’m talking about.  What little hair I have left I’m sure will continue to recede in 15 equal increments so that I will be completely bald on Lucy’s 16th birthday, if not sooner.

This year Jack proved to be a proud, yet distracted second grader.  Noah embraced Kindergarten with equal parts curiosity and skepticism.  I think he’s actually having more fun than he lets on, but that’s Noah.  February is just around the corner and my God, how are we going to pull off four birthdays in one month?

Don and Becky continue to be a huge and important part of our lives.  I can’t describe the gratitude I have for their help this year.  

2008 was also filled with more loss than I ever thought possible.   Nana, Shawn, an old friend from West 30th in Kennewick.  And Carol.  I’ll never forget that call from Dawn, just days after Nana’s funeral.  I said if anyone can beat the odds, it’s Carol.  She wasn’t going to give up on her family and they sure as hell didn’t give up on her.  Scott, Darla, Heath, Shawn, Jim, Judy – day in, day out, right there by her side.   And she did.  And she is. 

I think it was Wendy who first spoke of the timing of Lucy’s birth and how it happened to coincide with Nana’s last visit to the hospital.  Dawn and Nana happened to be a few floors apart for about three days, I think.  At first I couldn’t believe my luck — the two most important people to me in the world, both in the same hospital at the same time.  But once Lucy arrived it was obvious it had nothing to do with luck.  You can see it in her personality today, the same sparkle in her eyes, the same laugh, the same sweet smile. 

All part of Nana’s plan.  I miss you so much.

What a year it was.