We encountered loss. At the beginning of the year some dear friend of ours lost their 3 month old son and it has been the most heartbreaking thing I have ever witnessed. They have amazed us though with the strength and perseverance they have shown to continue on with life. Through this difficult (an understatement) year with them we have formed and rekindled a friendship that will last a lifetime.
Towards the end of the year we also lost my Grandad Banfield. While it was expected, it was still a huge loss to our family as he was our laughter and entertainment. We are thankful that he is no longer suffering and is cancer free but it is us that now suffer in his absence. Grandad would never want us to be sad so we keep going on with smiles on and our faces and remember him and his jokes fondly.
We faced trials. It is no secret that James has been studying for his CCIE exam since 2010. He has put in endless hours of studying to pass this thing. He was determined to pass it in 2015 and not drag it into 2016. With that came every evening, weekend and any free minute in our basement studying and labbing. Obviously it was all for a good reason but that left our relatively new family of four separated. It was me and then kids, and then James. It sucked. I had anxiety. James was stressed. But ya know what? We did it! We made it through. Even better, James passed the exam in November! I can say with certainty that neither one of us has felt such relief before. I can't even begin to describe to you how happy I am that I don't have to hear the words, "I need to go study" anymore.
Like I said we did have some fun and good times this year, and thank goodness for that as it's what kept us going.
We traveled. There are so many places we want to take the boys. Experiences we want them to have and we got to check two of those places off this year. Over the summer we all went to my home, England. The boys had never been before. It was important to us that my Grandad get to meet them and vice versa. Of course I wanted to spend time with him too. There is something about going home, it is so good for the soul. Immediately after James passed his CCIE, we got to take a trip to San Francisco, CA. Not a bad way to celebrate! It was our first vacation as a family of 4 and it was so much fun. I love that our little boys are world travelers, and I have a feeling they thoroughly enjoy it also.
I have a high hopes for 2016! I think it's going to be a great year for us. We have some plans to do some renovations to our house, do some more traveling, and enjoying each others company.
Happy New Year from our family to yours!
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