My beautiful, thoughtful, wonderful author friend Arlem Hawks posted on her Instagram account her word of the year. She's done this several years in a row, and after the disaster that was 2020, I've decided I want to join this tradition. 

But I'm terrible at following rules and guidelines, so I chose two words. (I'm also indecisive.) The two words I've chosen are HOPE and LIGHT. I thought about it for a while. They're simple words, and they've been part of my life for a long time, so purposefully embracing them for this coming year felt like the right thing. 

I immediately set on two quotes for my words, too. 

Light, of course, reminded me of Victor Hugo's quote which I've put above, with a photograph of two of my children playing in the light and water of the Atlantic Ocean. 

My other chosen word reminded me of the Emily Dickinson poem: 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - (314)BY EMILY DICKINSON
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

What would your words be?

As many of you know, all my plans to visit the UK are on hold. Most likely until 2022. Given that we gave away almost everything we owned, and moved in with family in anticipation of only spending a month in that situation before visiting Europe, we now find ourselves without a permanent home and almost no personal belongings.

Yet we are grateful for our health, our safety, and our blessings. We're a strong family, and even though the world is in crisis, we need to move forward with our dreams. So we've taken all that we saved for our grand trip abroad and put it somewhere else - into the search for a house.

You might wonder what it's like to house hunt in the midst of the apocalypse (tongue-in-cheek use of the term, I assure you).

First, we had to move out of the house we were sharing with relatives. With four adults working from home, and four children needing to do school work, and several health concerns in the family, it wasn't safe or practical for all of us to stay in the same house.

So for the past three months, we've been moving from one temporary place to another - using AirBnB credits received after cancelling the UK trip. We've moved every month since February.

While moving about, we've gone only twice to physical house showings. Both times wearing masks and not shaking hands with the people showing us the house, as well as standing across the room from agents.

We've also toured homes virtually, with an agent going through the house turning his camera phone to face out while my husband and I watched on a laptop.

We've done everything over the phone, signed every document virtually, and I still haven't physically stood in the house we found. But I'm SO thrilled to share that we have found a house!
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If all goes well, in a month's time, I'll own my first home.

One dream has made way for another. I hope everyone who reads this can find ways to make your dreams come true. There is strife all around us, but I hope you are able to find happiness and the strength you need to move forward!