2003-12-23 - 8:56 a.m.
There's a line in "The Sound of Music" to the effect of "When God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window." I have never been more mindful of that than I have this year.
After finally thinking I'd figured out the track for my life, I started grad school in January. Not even a month later, my husband found out he wasn't getting a transfer he'd been counting on. He hated the job he had and we decided to move, as we'd almost done the previous fall. Within a couple days, he found out about a job possibility with the company in Texas and applied. I dropped out of school. Not long after, my mother had a stroke. A week after that, I got the call to go home.
Mom died April 4th. Less than a month later, we moved to Houston. Once again, I found myself in a strange city where I knew nobody. I was full of doubt about so much in my life. I thought I'd figured out what I was supposed to do, only to have it ripped out from under me.
My window appeared in late July when we bought our house. The very time we drove up to the house after we signed the papers, someone came round the house next to us and said, "Are y'all the new owners of this house?" She introduced herself and was very nice. As I worked on getting the house painted before we moved in, I saw her a few more times and began to meet a few other people near us. The week before we moved in, there was a block party, where we met several of our new neighbors. I remember going back to the apartment that night and feeling happier than I had in a long time.
Now, the year is almost over. We've been in our house for four months and have made friends with a few neighbors. I feel incredibly blessed to have found the house we bought and to be surrounded by neighbors who are just so wonderful. God took my mother from me this year, but he gave me Erin, Meredith, Elizabeth and David and their daughters, and Kathy and Craig in return. I am so incredibly thankful and grateful for the gift of their friendship. They are wonderful people, each in their own special way, and I am glad to have been able to become their friend.
This is going to be a hard Christmas for me, as I'm sure it will be for my father. But my burden is eased with the knowledge that I have good friends surrounding me, along with the love of my husband. I have never felt more positive about my future than I do now, nor have I ever felt more blessed. 2003 has been a mixed blessing for me, but I'm very much looking forward to 2004, because it will bring with it more good memories with my new friends.
