2010, a summary

I thought about several different ways to summarize the year… going month by month (too long), giving just the highlights (too repetitive, since that’s what our blog was supposed to do all along)… then I thought about what I will really remember from 2010. What will I tell my kids about 2010? Essentially, the whole year can be boiled down to two related stories.

Story 1: On the one hand, you might say the story of 2010 was the story of us adjusting to Cambridge. You might think about our first couple of months in Cambridge as a ‘trip’, where we were observing a foreign country as outsiders while trying awkwardly to fit in. And after three months, we went ‘home’ (to the US) for Christmas. This meant that we started January 2010 with a return to Cambridge after feeling very much at home in Oklahoma… in short, Cambridge didn’t feel like home. It felt cold and dark, which, sadly, is not a metaphorical way of saying that it was lonely, it was really cold and really dark.

We’ve come along way from last January to this one. Building meaningful relationships makes a world of difference. We just finished an absolutely lovely Christmas holiday in Cambridge where we felt very much at home… mostly because we had people to share it with. Cambridge has never seemed so bright (unfortunately, in this instance, I am speaking metaphorically).

Story 2: On the other hand, you might say the story of 2010 was the story of us trying to have a baby. Trying to trust God and have patience within that process is not an easy thing. It’s the kind of thing that drives you to throw yourself on the mercy of God continually. The waiting is also the kind of thing that drives you to depend on community more and more. Looking back now, God’s provision seems so clear that I’m embarrassed I ever doubted it… our journey towards building meaningful friendships became more and more life giving at the same time that trying for a baby became more and more exhausting. Of course, at the end of our waiting, you can imagine how sweet life seemed when our good news brought relief and tears not just to us, but to our friends, who, we realized, had been waiting and praying along with us. At this point, having to wait two years seems a small thing compared to the challenges others face, and we count ourselves blessed.

So, in summary, 2010 was like a pair of shoes that you try on and at first don’t know if you like them or not. But as you wear them, you like them more and more.