A year goes by so fast these days that it's hard to see much change or progress in just one year, but when the ol' ticker turns up a zero, it's a little easier to look back and take stock, and also to look ahead and imagine. I know, I know, the decade doesn't really begin until next year, there was no "year zero" and everything, but Ten just has a nice round sound to it. :)
So! Looking back.
In the year 2000, we were all afraid the computers were all just going to roll over and die, plunging the world into a new Dark Age. Remember that? Jim was working for BDO Seidman then, and they were working around the clock up to the last day, checking and double-checking all the programming, to make sure those extra two digits were where they were supposed to be. They were, of course, and no problem. In light of what happened in 2001, I can't believe people were worried about that.
In the last ten years so many wonderful people have come into our lives, and some have left us for the Lord's Paradise. We said goodbye to Grandpa Hollopeter and Grandma Hollopeter in 2000, and to Grandma McEowen in 2009. Jim's uncle Dick died in 2001, his uncle Bob in 2005, his aunt Hazel in 2006, his uncle Fred in 2007, his aunt Ann in 2007, and his nephew Harley in 2008.
When 2000 dawned, if anyone would have said we would be moving to Kentucky in just over a year, I would have laughed like a hyena at the sheer nonsense of it. But we did, and lived there 5 1/2 years before returning in 2006. And once we were there, I never would have dreamed we'd be back in Michigan before the decade was out. But here we are, and glad to be so!
While we were in Kentucky we met some wonderful friends - many of Jim's colleagues: Greg Sperry and his family in particular; our friends at Immanuel United Methodist Church and at Lakeside Christian Church as well. We miss them all. Susan Nimmo, the director of music ministries and the Sonshine School director at Immanuel UMC was a particular friend of all of ours. We lost Sue to cancer in 2009.
We still miss Skyline Chili, The Pub, and that German sausage place in Kentucky, not to mention the Newport Aquarium and the Cincinnati Zoo, but being near our Michigan family and friends more than makes up for those losses! We have become more than acquainted with the Frederik Meijer Gardens, John Ball Park Zoo, and our Public Museum of Grand Rapids now that we're back in town.
When the decade dawned, we were both employed full-time, making less than half what Jim makes on his own now. We thank God for his many blessings and for supporting our faith and family during the hard financial times of the last few years.
The best of what God has brought us in the last decade is our children - Aidan Malcolm, born 18 July 2000, and Esme Nerys, born 31 August 2003. Aidan will be 10 this year, and Esme will be 7, and I can't believe it any more than you can. I am, however, relieved that I can be pretty sure the next decade won't bring us any diapers or infants crying in the night! We love our children with all our hearts.
In the "oughts" we welcomed Mariah, Cathy, Aidan, Esme, Megan, The Other Wendy, Andrea and Emily into the combined Buche-Lowry-Hollopeter family. We're looking forward to the addition of Jake Kuncaitis, our niece Jessica's fiance, into the family this July. Mom and Dad moved our family's "seat" to Mason, Michigan this past decade, and it's so nice (a) to have them closer to home, as well as (b) to have such a great woodsy place to gather as a family.
Thirty-seven sounds really old, but that's what I'm looking at later this month. I have five white hairs and take three daily pills, but other than that I'm still whole and hale. Forty-seven sounds a heck of a lot older, and I know it's going to take many, many hours on the treadmill, and probably a lot fewer cookies than I ate last year to get to forty-seven in good condition. :)
Obviously I don't know what the next ten years will bring. I hope I will have read the Bible ten more times, and I might also get through my stack of books I got for Christmas before ten years have passed. I hope to have done at least a few more books on branches of my family - or at least the research for the aforesaid. I know I'll be supporting my family through thick and thin, and as we're approaching our children's teenage years at the same time we're approaching our parents' sixties (my folks) and late-seventies/early-eighties (Jim's mom), it's not going to be easy. With a lot of prayer and God's help, we'll be just fine.
It sounds really strange, but after another decade has passed, my son will have graduated from high school and my daughter will be in her senior year (God willing).
More later!