I read recently that we only have three months left in this decade. Three more months! That’s it! I was in the check-out line at Trader Joe’s when I read that and immediately I began to panic. The end of a decade seems big! I didn’t go to all the places! I haven’t seen all the things! There’s never enough time! I sound like Jessie Spano! And what am I doing buying all these veggie straws?!
Time is one of those things that when described differently, the quantity stays exactly the same but the meaning can be completely changed. For example, I have been married to Will for seven years. That doesn’t sound like very long. But then I say out loud, I have known Will for almost an entire decade. For whatever reason, in my head that sounds incredibly long. I have only known Will 9 out of my 37 years. But I have known him for one out of the less than four decades I have been alive. Wild, right?
Here I am now, its October of 2019, the last year of this decade. So instead of semi-panicking about the end of an era, I will let this post be my little farewell to the past decade. A decade that overall has served me very, very well.
The decade started in 2010, obviously. The “early 2000s” were ending and we were now entering…what? The Twenty Teens? The Twenty Tens? No one knows. Or at least I don’t. But on a hot summers day in June of 2010, I looked across a crowded church wedding pew and locked eyes with my future husband for the first time. And I knew from that moment that the rest of my life would forever be changed. So corny, yet so true.
Flash forward to April 2011, after 9 months of dating, Will got down on one knee and we were engaged.
photography: Evan LaettnerWe were a few days shy of a 13 month engagement when we finally got married in April of 2012. Our engagement was longer than I had wanted but purely because a Charleston wedding just has to be a spring wedding (insert sarcasm, but seriously, spring weddings are the best). I also started my blog in 2012, discovered Pinterest, got an Instagram account, bought a sewing machine, taught myself how to sew, and we started trying for a baby. Pretty productive year, I’d say.
Hurricane Ridge Trail, Olympic National Park, WASummer of 2013 we traveled together for the first time as a couple and explored the Pacific Northwest, Washington State, the Oregon coast, and more importantly, we learned how to travel together as adults and as a married unit. Each trip since this one has gotten better and smoother than the one before it. I like to think of this trip as our practice run.
2014 was a hard year, I wrote about it here and here but I now look back on this year without sadness but with humility and pride at the strength and growth of myself from then until now.
In 2015 we did our first IVF and became pregnant will Liam.
He was born in February 2016. And before the year was over, we took him on one getaway to Miamii beach and one to Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park.
William “Liam” Glen Brown IV – February 14, 2016In 2017 we did a second IVF embryo transfer and although we lost that embryo, we remained optimistic that we could grow our family. We also did do some traveling that year, including a trip to Maine, which to this day is still one of our favorite trips. But more so, we watched Liam grow and learn and change right before our eyes this year. So yeah I think I liked you 2017.
In 2018 we did a second egg retrieval with IVF and became pregnant with Bear. Our last trip as a family of three was to Banff Canada and our first baby became an international baby with newly stamped passport.
And then in February 2019 Bear was born.
Bear Ellis Brown – February 14, 2019Now that we have traveled down memory lane, I am less in a panic and more appreciative of this past decade. The one that brought me from a single gal to a life full of boys. Here’s looking at you 2020 and may you be fill with as much love as the ones before you.
xoxo
