New Year...New Possibilities

Happy 2013 to you!  I hope the new year has started off well for you and your families.  It's a new year full of new possibilities!  Who knows what the new year will bring, but I think we all have a glimmer of hope at this time of year that we'll meet all of our new year's resolutions or that our lives will be enhanced in some way shape or form throughout the year.  I definitely hope that for myself!

Now that the new year is upon us I'll get back to a little bit of my background and share recent stories about my everyday life that I find humor or irony in due to being Asian and/or adopted.  So, to pick back up where I left off before the holidays...after being adopted, I grew up in a small farming community in northeastern Iowa where I was totally accepted in the community.  I never felt any different than any other kids growing up there and I have life-long friends from that small town that I treasure dearly.  I also grew up around a large and loving extended family of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents who taught me about using my imagination, an appreciation for food and cooking, a curiosity for craft making and about pure acceptance!  For me, that was my 'normal'....growing up in small town USA like many of you.  I didn't really know I was the only Asian around or that I was different in the eyes of many outside of my small-knit community.  I didn't realize that until we moved to the suburbs of Dallas, TX.

A new environment, a new culture, new people, new traditions...the list of "new" things went on and on and on.  My first fire ant bite that led me to break out in hives all over our first summer there.  My first car accident with my mom going to the grocery store a few months after we moved there.  My first bout of mononucleosis during our first Christmas.  And, our first home burglary during our first Christmas in Texas, as well.  Needless-to-say, our first year in a new place was a challenging one.  But, as I recently looked back at pictures from that time we all seemed happy with what we had (which wasn't much) and made the best of any and all situations that came our way.  We were all learning to adjust to our new environment together...and that's all that mattered...we were together as a family.  And, I think the strength and camaraderie of our families back home in Iowa gave us the strength and courage to persevere...to just keep going.

So, no matter what trials and tribulations the new year throws at you, I hope you are surrounded by loved ones that will encourage you to just keep going!  Yes, it's a new year...and yes, there will be ups and downs...but, it's that foundation that we've built that allows us to stand back up on stable ground.  It's never too late to start anew!  So, here's wishing you a new year of unlimited possibilities!  Cheers!