A Week Away

I am less than a week away from turning 40.  And, I'm okay with that.

Last night as I was lying in bed thinking about the last decade of my life, I thought about where I was ten years ago, and where I am now and about all the things that have happened in between.

Here I am at 30.  We spent my birthday in New York.  It was cold and snowy and Andrew, Abby and I had a great time walking all over the city.  It was only four months after 9/11 and it was sobering to visit Ground Zero.

It's crazy to think that ten years ago, we only had Abby.  She was seven months old and our world revolved around her.  I can't even picture my life with only one child.  What did I do all day?

Andrew was in his third year of medical school, still not sure what he wanted to specialize in.  We were living in our tiny but perfect 820 square foot apartment in Arlington, Virginia.  I was driving my white 1996 Honda Accord and Andrew was driving a 1992 Volkswagen Jetta (a car he claims would have been amazing when he graduated from high school, but had definitely seen better days by the time we got it.)  All our friends had tiny kids - none of them had even started preschool by then.  It was an amazing time in our lives.

It's crazy to think that in those ten "short" years, we have gone from one to five children.  Andrew graduated from medical school and we moved to Minnesota.  We had three great years there while Andrew finished residency and now we've been back in Utah for over FIVE years.

My thirties were a great decade.  I did so much of what I had spent my life dreaming about - having babies and raising lots of little kids.  There was so much joy in my thirties - and not too much heart ache or sorrow.  I will always look back on my thirties as a golden decade, but I am ready to hit the big 4-0.  I'm ready to see what the next decade will bring.  Bring it on, Life.  Bring it on.