2011: A Partial Year Review

Jennifer and I spent much of the last 3 weeks debating what to call 2011: "The Comeback Year," the "Turnaround Year," the "Resurrection Year." You get the idea.

The point is, looking back, 2011 has been very good to us. It didn't start that way. In January we were out of money. I dropped a few resumes with potential employers thinking I would have to abandon my practice. I contemplated picking up a part-time job to make ends meet. Things were scary, and every penny counted.

To make matters worse, we were living in a pretty crappy house. For the first time in my life I was miserable in my church calling. Our Cleveland house was evaporating value. We were about to have another baby, and I wasn't sure how we would pay for him. And, BYU Football had just wrapped up an extremely disappointing year. It was hard to be happy, and it was sometimes difficult to be a good husband and father.

Needless to say, 2011 started out as a horrible year.

Somewhere in the middle of 2011, though, things began to change. Clients started showing up out of nowhere. With money. We moved into a much better house. I got a new calling (I teach early morning seminary). BYU won 10 games. Our savings account rose from the dead. And best of all, I don't think my marriage has ever been as strong.

I know people use blogs to only write the good stuff about their life. I wanted to relate the bad stuff because that's what makes these days seem so wonderful. In a strange way, I cherish that really rough patch. There are a lot of reasons our lives are much better now, and one major reason is that they were so bad at the beginning of the year. But most importantly, there's no doubt that our fervent prayers and other acts of worship during that time and since were heard and noticed by our Father in Heaven.

I look forward to what next January holds.