Adventure awaits.

When I tell anyone that I have started a blog, the next question is, 'What's it about?"

I was not prepared the first time someone asked me this question and immediately regretted not having an elevator answer ready. "Me," I sheepishly replied and instantly recognizing how egocentric I must sound. "And my family,"I quickly added.

"Oh," said my friend Kelly politely. I could tell she was thinking something along the lines of "...alrighty then!"

I began trying to describe into words why I felt called to begin documenting this year of our lives.There have been a few especially significant years that stand out in our lives and I could see that 2025 was already shaping up to be one of them.

1999 - the year I graduated from college, we got married and grieved the loss of my mother to pancreatic cancer, in that order and all within the span of 4 months.

Then we had four kids and it goes without saying how HUGE and HAPPY those events and years were for us! Rafa's father passed away unexpectedly in 2004, just four months after Travis was born but we are grateful he was able to meet his first grandson.

2016 - the year we moved from Houston to Austin after a tragic event. It ended up being the best choice we ever made! The weather, hills, creeks, lakes, rivers and parks have made for lots of outdoor adventures. I love that our boys grew up swimming and fishing in Barton Creek, riding bikes on trails and hiking in the hills. R became excellent at using his heavy duty magnet to find all kinds of treasures in creeks. M is part of a middle school biker gang of boys who ride all over the place, even where they're not supposed to, like downtown Austin. It was a smooth transition and good for the six of us. We also added two more dogs to the familia which somehow makes us feel complete.

This year, 2025 - The twins are graduating from high school. T is going away to college, something that will likely be devastating for W since they have never been apart. Very soon we will be selling our house that we have loved for the last 9 years, moving out of state and begin making our lives in Colorado. Hopefully this is our last move. A new climate with a higher elevation awaits us which will take some getting used to. We still need to find a new home, new schools for M and W and set up services for our two guys with disabilities. We will need to learn how to navigate a new city, find new doctors and learn how to drive in snow and ice conditions with chains. Oh, and R is turning 21 which means he will have access to dispensaries and that could end up being an issue.

While all this is happening, there is also the uncertainty (and chaos) that this new Trump administration has brought and what it could mean for our family. So far, none of it has been good and we are only a month in.

For all these reasons, and the little voice in my head that sounds an awful lot like my mother's, I feel compelled to document it all. Hopefully someday we will look back in awe of ourselves, and not dismay, at everything we took on this year and how it all turns out.

“We must let go of the life we have planned,

so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”

— Joseph Campbell