Abundance

Life has been abundant around here, which is kind of fitting, because if you were to ask Nick and I what word comes to mind on New Year’s Eve, it would be abundant. Abundant in love, in friendship, in family (hello, three new sister-in-laws in 2013), in life, in travel and adventures, and in happiness.

I just returned from a long weekend in NYC with some girlfriends from the UK. Actually, a wife and wife-to-be of Nick’s best friends from childhood. We spent the weekend wedding dress shopping, bridesmaid dress shopping, window shopping, shopping-shopping and eating some of the best food in NYC. Because us wives are thick as thieves and how lucky are we to be close friends when our husbands are best friends? Abundance.

Over the holiday season, all three of my brothers got engaged with fantastic women that I adore. I would be friends with each of them if we met on the street, and now I get to call them my sisters. I have always, always wanted a sister and now I get three, only we got to skip the teenage years when all the sisterly fighting happens, and bring our best adult selves to the relationship. Abundance.

As each year passes, I love my husband more and more, if that were even possible. He is such an amazing Dad (hello, long weekend trips where I don’t even worry for a second, even though the children are really sick with colds), such an amazing partner and incredibly inspirational in his passion and skills as a businessman photographer. Abundance.

A couple of months ago, Nick and I decided that I was going to spend an extra day a week working for him, starting in January. But our nanny has another job and can’t give us the days that we need. So, in divine abundance, along comes a young, traveling, Aussie friend of the family, Gabi, who just happens to want to stay in Seattle for a while and just happens to be fabulous with the children and just happens to be flexible enough to stay with us and nanny-on-demand for now. And to complete the circle, my mom babysat her mom in Australia 35 years ago, her mom babysat me when I was little, and now Gabi is babysitting my children. Abundance.

This year is a year of travel for us. We have a lot of destination weddings and family reunions that are bringing us to some amazing places, all of them filled with family and friends. This is the last 9 months that Poppie can travel for free, so once this year is over, our traveling schedule will be greatly reduced, so we are appreciating and enjoying every second of these trips. Abundance.

And the picture of Finn? They remind me what a happy, well-adjusted little boy he is these days. He is absolutely brimming with an abundance of love, kindness and happiness, which means that we are doing our job.