2011 in Review

This year marks 7 years of marriage and 10 years together.  It has seriously FLOWN by, and we have grown closer as each year passes.  We continue to be best friends, and are so thankful to have each other to walk with through this journey called life.

2011 has brought countless blessings. After Doug's annual evaluation at work, they gave him a promotion to Level II Scientist.  He is really enjoying his work, and his company's status is more stable at this point.  They received their initial round B funding, which means they're set for about 2 more years.  So we are no longer stressing that his company will dissolve and he will be left without a job.

Amanda passed her Professional Development Dossier, a 56+ page document (basically like a Master's Thesis) that she had to complete in order to become a level II teacher, and ultimately in order to continue teaching.  (NM does things… differently.)  This year, she has a great class—her best yet!  It really makes going to work each day MUCH more enjoyable when there is a great group of kids to teach.  

In March, Doug’s sister had a baby, giving us another nephew.  Aaron is such a cutie!  Now we have 3 nephews—Alex, Aaron, and Michael; and 2 nieces—Judy and Edie.  We love them all!

In June, we took a vacation to the Dominican Republic for a friend's wedding.  It was sooo beautiful!  We had a wonderful time.  We stayed at the Hard Rock Resort, and we highly recommend it!  See this post for more info and pics.

In September, Doug hiked the 17-mile South Kaibab to Bright Angel trail of the Grand Canyon with his 77-year-old grandfather, cousins, and brother-in-law.  It was so impressive that his grandfather is in good enough shape to have completed such a feat!

 In October, we took a camping trip to Haviland Lake for Doug's birthday.  It snowed, it was cold, and we had an awesome time!  It was nice to get away for a while. 

As always, friends and family remain a huge blessing in our lives.  If you are reading this, we are thankful for you and having you in our lives is one of the high points of every year.

Even with all of the blessings, 2011 has probably been the toughest year we’ve had to face.  As many of you know, we have been trying to start a family for about 2 years now.  We’re both young, so we assumed getting pregnant would be no big deal.  As time went on, we became concerned that maybe things wouldn’t be so easy for us.  In the meantime, Amanda started having health issues.  She went to countless doctors for pain she was having in her lower to mid back, thinking it was some kind of kidney infection.  Doctors did several tests and couldn’t really pinpoint the problem. 

They found out that she had a cyst on her ovary, but didn’t think that was the cause of her back pain.  She had several more tests done, but no answers.  The pain kept her up at night, and laying in bed all day with a heating pad.  FINALLY in August, she was referred to another doctor, who wanted to perform laparoscopic surgery pretty much right away. 

Three days later, she had the surgery, where they removed the large cyst and discovered that she has Stage 4 endometriosis.  The endometriosis had caused a lot of adhesions (scar tissue) that had basically glued many of her organs to each other and to her pelvis.  It was a mess. They removed as much of the scar tissue and disease as they could, but they couldn’t get rid of it all.  The surgery was supposed to last 45 minutes, but it ended up taking 3 hours.  The wait was really rough on Doug.

Unfortunately, endometriosis is not curable.  However, the surgery made her feel about 100 times better, and enabled her to get back to her life.  She now has a really good doctor who is helping her manage the disease and keep it from flaring up, as much as is possible.

We are still struggling with infertility, and we are exploring our options.  Not only do we want to build our family, but also our doctor has told us that for some reason, pregnancy often puts endometriosis in remission, so it can be good for Amanda’s health.  We know that God is in control, and we really appreciate prayer in this situation.  We are so thankful for everyone who has supported us during this time, so thank you.   

Overall, through the dark and the light times, we are staying optimistic about what 2012 will bring for us.  We know that in everything we are so blessed.  Have you heard the story of the tapestry?  It sums things up so nicely (from this blog):

There was a little boy sitting at his mother's feet as she was sewing a tapestry. After a long while of him gazing up, he had this strange look on his face. His mother asked him, "Darling, What is the matter?"

His reply was, "Mommy, that is the ugliest thing I have ever seen!"

His mother turned her tapestry over, and He was right! It was ugly. There were knots, and strings and threads and they were all crossed in various ways and it WAS ugly!

His mother replied, "Oh sweetie, you are right, but you are looking at it all wrong!

You see, if you look at it from up here, it is beautiful!"
With that she turned the tapestry over for him to see. It WAS beautiful. It was perfectly stitched.
"The little boy replied with joy, "OH Mommy! It is PERFECT!" I couldn't see what you saw!

That is exactly how this life is for us. We see things from underneath; from our human perspective. The entire time, GOD is weaving the tapestry of our lives from up above, and He sees our lives from HIS perspective. He sees the right side of that tapestry.

He is weaving something beautiful with the fabric of our lives. :)