What New Year's has to offer...

I always find New Year's much like those little two words at the end of a good novel, 'The End.'  This year especially, I saw that with a much exasperated sigh of relief.  This year needs to be over.  In fact, entering a new decade gives me even more hope.

While the Millenium provided me with a wonderful husband and my lifelong partner, as well as two of my children being born in this decade; it was overall, extremely challenging.  I know that this doesn't just go for me.  I have seen so many people struggle over the past few years in a variety of ways.

Tomorrow offers us all a fresh dose of hope, an encouraging emotional breath of a desire for something different, for change.  It has made me think about so many of the things that I hope to happen in the next decade:

Our daughter will graduate high school and will leave for college.
Our two oldest sons will graduate, God willing.
Our oldest children MIGHT get married before the end of this decade.
We MIGHT be Grandparents in the next ten years. (GASP!!!)
We might persevere through some of these struggles and a live a more stress-free life.  (Hoping.)
We will hopefully be more selective about the relationships that we develop and keep. 
Our beloved dog Berkley, will probably live his last in this decade.  (Very sad.)
We will very possibly lose Brian's Grandparents.  (I don't even want to think about it.)

There are so many things that are possible.  So many things that are sure to happen.  Not all good, you can be certain, but hopefully the scale will tip in that favor.

I just know that right now, I am looking forward to the mere possiblity of leaving all of this behind.  I'm not sure why the ticking of a clock towards midnight offers me that aspiration, but it does.

I hope and pray that this year and this next decade help all of our wishes come true; it allows those we love to remain healthy and safe and prosperous; that we have as minimal heartache as anyone should have to endure, and above all that we are loved and cared for. 

God blesses us each and every day.  I pray that I can keep that more in mind...