2012...The one thing you can expect is change...

2012 has indeed been a year of changes. Most notably, my 21 year old son David, returned from serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It has been humbling indeed to see how much he has grown up. He seems to have gained an added measure of maturity, thankfulness, gratitude, and helpfulness. I am told to enjoy it, because it wears off. We were blessed in so many ways while he was gone. It is said,"When we give a crust of bread to the Lord he will bless us with a loaf in return." Not only were we blessed to help support him on his mission financially, but we also were blessed to have the resources to pay for a wedding. This was miraculous as my work available is always varied and I never know how much I will get paid until I actually have worked the hours no matter how many days I schedule myself. So, this was a very huge miracle.

I have continued to work on pre-requisites to hopefully get a spot in our hospital's company sponsored Baccalaureate Nursing program. My eyes have been opened. I was informed in addition to the degree I already have I must complete an additional computer class and English class. I felt okay with the computer class. There were several people (mostly men) older than I in that class. However, in my English class, that was not the case. I was by far the oldest person in the class of mostly twenty-somethings, like more than twice as old. I am even older than the instructor. I of course explained why I was taking the class. The instructor asked me if I felt disconnected or out of touch. I think to his surprise I said, "No, some of my kids are the same ages as my classmates so I can actually relate." I really knew I was, "older" when I had to write an essay on whether or not I thought I was up to date on what was cool. I was so out of style that the styles were already coming back in and were popular that I recognized as being so "80's." Sheesh!

I was really worried when I had to write my first 6 page essay thinking I would get comments like,"you need to go back and take remedial English" or "This is the most horrible essay I have ever read." But to my delight and surprise I received 50/50 points and he wrote it was very "thoughtful." Boy was I surprised! When I relayed this to a friend of mine that is an obstetrician that is my age, she was unsurprised and gave a high 5 and fist pump to women returning to school and proving themselves as better students then the twenty-year olds.

She is also the one who was truly happy when I announced my 21 year old daughter's marriage. Everyone else felt she was too young. But not this doctor. She said,"I see thousands of women. All of them that have waited until later in life to get married have all said that there was someone special earlier in their life they had the opportunity to marry, but instead chose to wait. Now they see themselves having difficulty having babies, rushing against their inner clock, to beat it." And, "How much better it is to finish growing up those last years of their twenties with someone they love. There are less opportunities for women to meet mates after college, since no one wants to date a co-worker. How much more there is to choose from while you are in college." Again she came to my rescue to reassure what I already knew to be true.

It hasn't been easy raising five kids, but rest assured it is worth every single second of effort. There were many times I would have rather gotten much needed sleep instead of waking up early to make sure we got to church on my husband's weekends working. His support and love is invaluable. There were many times when our kids didn't understand why we said, "No." I wish I would have learned this sentiment earlier,"I'm okay with you not understanding,"when they tried in vain to convince us of something we disagreed with.

Now it's my hope they will always find themselves in the right place, doing the right thing at the right time as each of them move through their various phases of finishing high school, starting and finishing college, and starting out on married life. I wish for them to have wisdom beyond their years to make wise choices that may affect them the rest of their lives.