Top 10 of 2010

So here we are, at the end of 2010. I can't say it's been the easiest year of my life, but it has sure been full. It brought me some good things: a little package of pure enthusiasm - my daughter, Julietta. Her smile and squeals can flip my mood 180 degrees. Seriously, you've got to meet this kid. I know she was sent to us, especially, to remind us to smile, even when we may not feel it. You can't not smile when she is around.

2010 brought me a new love as well - my passion for photography. Who can believe that after all of these years of being that annoying friend with the camera in your face and the one who made her college buddies sit down and go through every.single. photo album, one day I'd be on the verge of taking photos for a living?!

When I left the US, nearly eight years ago, I remember writing in my journal about how excited I was to see how I'd fill up the rest of the pages - what adventures lay before me, what new people would impact my life, and where I'd end up. I couldn't even fathom the idea that I'd be writing from a small house in Valencia eight years later with a husband and two daughters. I had no idea I'd be about to start up a photography business.

Life sure floors me now and then... well, actually, it floors me every time I stop and think about it.   I'm writing this from one of the deepest, darkest, lowest points in my life so far, and yet I'm filled with so much hope. I know that there are a lot of us out there at this very moment who are suffering in some way. I do believe, though, that it is our faith and our hope that get us through the rough patches, and it is with our actions and our pure desire to want something better that we can change the parts we don't like, even if that means looking at things in a different light. I have absolutely no idea what this next year will be like, but I do believe, my friends, that it will floor us.

It will bring us to our knees.

It will be the best year yet.

I  believe it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Love,

Sarah