Hello blog family! I can’t believe it has been so long. I have a lot of logical explanations (or excuses- however you choose to look at) for not being around, but we will just look past that and look on to what the future brings.

You may notice this blog doesn’t quite look the same as it once did. At least, I am hoping you noticed! Take a look around, see if you notice any of the changes. I realized that I can reach a much larger audience if I don’t limit myself to just one topic. I am extremely passionate about our adoption experience and want to share it with the world. But I am also super passionate about my faith, family, fitness and finances! So I am going to let you into my whole life. Not just a part of it, the whole circle. And let me tell you some days are a lot prettier than others.

So as I adjust to the new blog style and writing, know I will still share the good, the bad, the hard and the truths about raising a child in an open adoption, I will also write about how we put Jesus first in our household, live a healthy lifestyle, put an emphasis on fitness, how we paid off our student loans in 1 year and many, many more things.

I can’t wait to continue to share with you all our highs, lows and in the middles as Jackson calls it. I can’t promise there won’t be times when I go MIA again, but I am going to do my best to keep everyone up to speed and part of our family circle. Be careful, it might just get real up in here!

So let’s get right back at it.

I have had the same New Year’s resolution going on 10 years now. Pay off our debt. I am not sure this was a good strategy or not, keeping the same one year after year. Either I was never successful at it. Or I was successful, we just had a lot of debt.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE…..

This year, I can finally say it paid off. We finally did it. We finally paid off my husband’s student loans. Let me remind you he went to college four times. Associates Degree, Bachelor’s Degree, Teaching Certificate, and a Master’s Program. So it is no wonder it took us as long as it did. But I could not be happier that they are finally paid off.

But now the looming question is, what will my New Year’s resolution be for 2019? I vowed long ago to never make resolutions that revolved around fitness or eating. Back then I was a terrible eater and I didn’t even exercise. It was no wonder I made that vow, I never would have stuck to it.  Now, they are both so much a part of my life that it wouldn’t challenge me the way I want a resolution to challenge me. Maybe they should change the name from New Year’s resolutions to New Year’s challenges. I excel when challenged.

So this year my challenge is to invest a hefty sum of money into our IRA’s, 403(b), 401(k), and the like. As my husband calls it, we need a higher savings rate! Ever since stumbling upon the “FI” movement last summer we have been determined not to work this life away. In fact, we were just having dinner with a family member a few weeks ago that shared with us that her dad no longer wanted to go on a lifelong trip to Alaska to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary. I can’t say it was because he worked his life away, but I have a feeling had he had the opportunity to do it 20 years earlier, he would have. He would have been in better health. He would have been in better spirits.

So, that is what we are going to do. We are going to work hard now, sacrifice on the luxuries of life and save in a way that will let us retire (I will share how we define retire in a later post) in less than 10 years.  For more information about the FI movement, you can check out my husband’s blog over at www.teachfi.com. He’s just getting started so I can’t wait to write a post about his journey to finding FI, how he met his business partner and how we got to where we are today.

2019, you seem like you are going to be a great year. Bring it on. I got this.

Who out there still makes New Year’s resolutions? If you do, I want to hear what they are this year.