It's always been the point of this record to share the stories of our Gailan fam. Most of those are the high points: the birthdays and holidays, the trips and adventures. We might sprinkle in some funny times from the slow days but mostly this blog is about capturing the joys each year.
But sometimes life isn't a joyous thing. Sometimes life is hard. Last year our blog included facts from lockdown and the pains as we navigated the new reality of a pandemic. 2021 was supposed to be this freeing return to normal but it wasn't. It was better in so many ways (school returning in person, the vaccine being available) but in other more personal areas and still in the world, it was kind of a dumpster fire sometimes.
Again, the point of this blog is to record our family history - the Gailan history - and to omit the sad parts and the hard parts means omitting our history. Our reality. It means glossing over the bad stuff and pretending we never went through crap along the way. I don't think that's a healthy way to see history. This blog is really for Clark and Charlotte. To know what our lives were like when you were little. Not to show you some of the hard stuff makes it seem like we never had trials. We did. We got angry. We got sad. We got frustrated. We gave up sometimes and then came back and tried to do better. That's what life was really like this year.
So in honor of truth, this last post of 2021 is going to focus on some really high points and some really low points of the year.
The Highs:
Travel - we got to see so many people this year and experience a lot of the country and world as a family. It was our first time abroad with the kids and amazing to see them adapt so easily to another country and people.
Food - we have had struggles getting our kiddos to venture out from the pretzel/goldfish aisle but this year they got more adventurous. Clark, in particular, has wanted to sample what we eat. And Char has followed suit, if more hesitantly. They have tried Indian, Thai, Mexican, Seafood and many others and we are proud of their growth.
School - this is maybe both a high and a low. Both our kiddos spent 2021 struggling in some areas. Char in speech. Clark in reading. We had some yelling matches, tears (mostly Moms) and set backs but both kiddos have done their best and now at the end of the year we see great improvement. Charlotte speaks more clearly and wants to communicate. She is already trying to sound out words and letters. Clark went from barely reading at a Kindergarten level to now zooming through first reader books and foraying into graphic novels with Dogman. We still have a lot of work to do but it's encouraging to see progress.
Finances - we don't talk a lot about our finances on here but we have been really blessed this year with good fortune in money. We have used that to pay down a significant amount of our mortgage and plan to fully pay off our home in 2022. It's a huge accomplishment and a big relief to imagine ourselves debt free.
The Lows:
The Pandemic - it's not over. Far from it. We are still wearing masks and still under certain lockdown procedures. A good percentage of the country does not want to be vaccinated and this divide has only deepened into anger between the two groups. We have choosen to vaccinate ourselves and the kids (Clark is fully vaxed and Char will be when her age group is approved) and we try to be civil and open minded as everyone makes their own decisions but sometimes it's hard not to judge others for choices we cannot understand.
Sonny and Sue - we've kept this out of the blog mostly until it was all finalized but 2021 will always be remembered as sad for us, because divorce is always sad. Early in the year, hurt feelings and some not great choices led to a parting of the ways for Dana's parents. After 20+ years of marriage, they felt it was best to move forward separately. We lost contact with Sonny for a few months and spent that time cleaning out their home on Lincoln Ave. to be sold. To say it was a large undertaking would be a massive understatement. We weren't prepared for the volume and sheer amount of items to remove from the home. We ended up taking over 3 tons to the dump and spending 5 whole weekends trying to make it fit for sale. We tried being the realtors only to have our first buyers fall through after the vaccine mandate. We turned it over to the pros and still it only finalized the week before Christmas. While we weren't prepared for the state of the house, we were less prepared for the emotional fallout of a family breaking apart. Both Sonny and Sue responded to the loss in different ways; and the boys grieved as well. It was a stressful few months and by no means over. We now have to navigate two families that we love dearly and find a way to move forward with forgiveness, patience, and love.
2021 was by no means the easiest year we've had as a Gailan clan but it was a growing year. Through it all we have been more and more grateful for the truth of the gospel. For the knowledge of a Savior who loves us and understands in a way no one else can how we are feeling and how to make it better. It was a year we needed to lean on that a lot. Remembering the sad parts don't take away the good. In fact, making it to the other side of the hard bits shows us that we have grown and are stronger for it. What will 2022 look like? Probably not a lala land fairytale. But whatever it brings, we can handle it. Together.
