Thank You 2019

2019 was a mixed year for us. It did not start well, though we had amazing plans to celebrate our mother's 70th birthday on 1st Jan 2019.
Myself and my sister had a great plan, and did everything secretly, so that mom could enjoy a surprise blast on her special day.
To host that party, I had renovated my house and it has become like a palace now
For this matter, we patched up with all our relatives, whom we did not interacted in the past. It was so fun and fulfilling to reconnect with your old buddies after a while.

But just a day before the new year, both myself and my mom fell sick with a kind of viral fever, that we both couldn't even get up from the bed.
So, we had to postpone the whole event, and unfortunately we could not materialize it till now.

Later in January, there has been so many familial issues at my brother's family. He and his wife had a conflict, in which my other sister and her H got caught up. So, myself and my mom had to work a lot to harmonize both parties. This kind of issues are uncommon in our family, so it really affected our peace of mind.

In March both myself and mom got sick once again. This time, it was something else - a seasonal flu. Since we were weak already due to earlier viral fever, we had a hard time recovering. We even had to check for Dengue and other serious health issues since the cause of our illness were unknown for many days. Thank God, we recovered in 2 weeks.

But along the same time, my H was rewarded with a promotion, and salary increment.
My DD had won a lot of prizes on her School prize giving day, and that was a record for a very young girl in their history.

I was approved to take 6 months break from work, with salary - which was my dream for many years. I could enjoy being a stay at home mom during those 6 months, spending every seconds with my kids and family to the most.
I hosted parties, cooked special dishes, and spent quality time with all at home to cherish for my life

We siblings (brother and sister) with their families had traveled a lot together, and made nice memories in April during our kid's school holidays.

And then this Easter attacks on churches changed our lives upside down. We have gone back to the war mode once again. There were so many deaths in our city, so many hate crimes, so many threats and what not.
It has affected everyone of us, and our core life style has been affected to a certain extend following this crime

But as planned, we went ahead with our pilgrimage trip to India in May. That was the most holy experience, that I would cherish for life.
I was able to take my mom to one of her favorite place and she thanked me from the bottom of her heart
With this trip, we were able to divert our mind from the fear, and able to resume our normal life slowly.

In July, I had to go back to work, but this time in my home country. A new atmosphere at work, new bunch of work colleagues, and this challenging work is yet another reward for me.

For the August holidays, we had planned another joint trip and everyone of us have gathered at my place to begin our trip. But God had planned something else, hence my niece (brother's DD) fell sick on that day and we had to rush her to the hospital, thinking it was some minor problem.
But hell broke lose, when she was diagnosed with leukemia the next day. Everything shattered and the whole family broke in to pieces with this diagnosis.

For the first month, we stood closely by each other and were ready to do anything for that child.
The next month reality started to strike hard, and we had developed misunderstanding when extended families capitalized our circumstance.
Lots of blame games, and bitterness as if we caused cancer to the kid and suffer on purpose. We failed to identify the culprit; hence suffered the next few months in agony

But thank God, we did not lose hope on the kid. We did not lose trust on each other. So, we could somehow beat the cancer to make the child cancer free in the next 2 months. She is on maintenance treatment since then, and with God's grace coping well.
We siblings have patched up and are there for each other as always

As we approach the latter part of the year, blessings are overflowing with the grace of God.
My Husband has been promoted again with a short term onsite assignment, which is going very successful.
Kids are performing exceptionally well in their classes, and as a mom I feel humbled to see their performances.
As I earn a good income, I have chosen a few unfortunate families to support on a monthly basis. I've started my support since last October and it is a blessing to see them smile and prosper in life.

We are almost in the last month of this year. December is the month of celebrations, so I would like to leave the rest of the days in the hands of God.

This year has given us everything, and above all, it has given us the strength to face the hardship and be the blessing in other person's life.
We hope for a smooth journey in 2020 as well.

 

Thanks for your wishes sir,
In fact, the reason behind my write up is to tell everyone that life is filled with both pleasures and pain. That's the reality.

As I grow old, I understand the need to collect good karma for myself and for the kids. This just a first step only!!!

 

Thanks a lot

I am also glad that we are together as before. It was just a passing dark cloud.
We siblings are very much attached to each other since birth. In fact, everyone comments about our attachment and friendship before marriage. And many say, how long we could continue to be together like this after marriage?
We had to make a lot of serious decisions in life like migration, career, marriage etc..etc.. considering our togetherness as a priority in the past.
Thankfully, it has always worked because we are blessed with great spouses who understood our closeness, and have mingled together as another set of siblings to us.

Not everyone is happy that we siblings are together. Our togetherness was our power, and that's what some people did not like.
Unfortunately we fell prey in their trap during this most tragic times (niece's diagnosis), as they were able to capitalize this situation against us.
We had misunderstandings on the spouses of our siblings, and so much. But fortunately our love stood above everything.
We had some open talk and resolved everything, and finally found the culprit who caused all these misunderstanding between us.

Thank God, 2019 wasn't bad. It has just taught us some tough lessons!