2022 in a Nutshell

Twenty-Twenty-Two was the first year that I didn't write (let alone send) a Christmas card update about how the year went.

Because I couldn't sit down and write it.  Because 2022 felt like 2020.2--an upgraded version of The Year that was incredibly difficult for the entire world. Of course there were good things, and blessings, and truly special moments. But in December, when I looked back over the year, there was too much crushing weight for me to compose a happy update of only-the-good highlights.

It started out with our neighbor DeAnn's unexpected death in January, and every month afterward seemed to get a little harder.  

Allen and Truman both battled very real, suffocating, overwhelming depression.  

Truman transferred home to a service mission and struggled for months with feelings of failure and longing to be back in Korea.

Brigham didn't have the cross-country season he was hoping for his senior year, killing himself at every meet and being passed by teammates who hadn't put in the same amount of time or work--after training with dedication for years. 

I was more sick, more often, than any other year of my life.  I count five weeks of serious sickness, where confinement and rest were the only ways to survive, and another five weeks of persistent coughing and just feeling blah: that's one-fifth of the entire year, and I certainly wasn't the only family member who got sick.

We lost my cousin Nova, my aunt Georgia, our family friend Robert Nielsen. Allen's sister Kathryn is still battling complications from her radiation treatment for her cancer.

Our community was rocked by several tragic, dark events. 

Inflation rates hit us hard, especially with a service missionary at home, whose main expenses are gas and groceries: the two things that were already crippling us financially.  We had an E.R. visit for a trampoline accident, automobile trouble that cost thousands of dollars.

And of course there are the run-of-the-mill trials and tribulations that are part of every day life, but which seemed totally insurmountable with the added stresses and pressures that seemed to come from every side.

It is not "the done thing" to send a Christmas card that highlights only the tough things, even though (of course) we are not the only family that faced hardship in 2022, or in any year.  Our family's trials might be welcomed by so many who are facing far worse.

But it was such a hard year.

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We stretched in our suffering, and we turned to the Savior over and over again for comfort and direction and peace, which He gave, every time.  

We grew closer to one another as a family, and rallied around the ones who needed our love and acceptance and support.

There were lots of tears and heartache, but mourning with those that mourned brought a sweet relief to both parties.

Our prayers lost some of their repetitiveness, and became more focused and sincere.

We still went on trips, made special foods, celebrated birthdays, hiked and biked and camped and gardened, laughed with each other late into the night.

It was a hard year; but it was still good.  

Because, as the Savior said, 

"...there is none good but one, that is, God." (Mark 10:18) 

"...good cometh of none save it be of me. I am the same that leadeth men to all good" (Ether 4:12).

President Nelson told us in April of 2022 to "expect miracles."  Of all the things I learned in 2022, the most important is this: God's miracles are so much better than even the ones we were "expecting."  

At the Bayer company picnic in July

At Chandler's wedding in August

It's been fun cheering on the eagles with Brigham this year

Trying to visit DeAnn's grave on her birthday, Nov 27th
We had to turn back because the road was IMPASSIBLE

Christmas Eve with my kind, funny, brave, good kids

Jordan River temple in December