Reflections on 2018

Each year I write a blog post about the past year for our family and so here we are again, another year another blog post. 2018 has been quite the ride! In 2017 we had the tragic misfortune of losing a son and so as we started 2018 we were still grieving Roman, he will forever be a missing part in our family and we will miss him dearly until the day we no longer roam this earth.

February came, and the Arevalos packed up and took a 24 hour flight around the world to Sydney! This was the adventure of a lifetime for us. We got to explore Sydney and a bit of Queensland while we were there; to say that we fell in love with Australia is an understatement, we’ll definitely be going back! While there we also found out we were pregnant with our 4th child! That was a mixed bag of emotions for sure!

March came and we flew back to NYC fully expecting spring to be here, instead we got delayed at in LAX because of a snowstorm in NYC. It would have been great except that usually sunny and warm LA was cold and rainy and we were pretty jet lagged. Anyway, we finally made it back home after our adventure down under and quickly started the process of preparing for a new baby, thinking of names, hospital visits, etc. Brooke and I couldn’t decide on a baby name, we would each throw something out and veto it ha!

In April I surprised Brooke for her 30th birthday with a surprise dinner at Raclette, she had been wanting to go here for quite a long time so her 30th birthday was the perfect time to go! In May we had a gender reveal, and we found out we were having another boy, and then we finally decided on a baby name on Memorial Day weekend, which we spent, for the 7th year in a row, with our dear friends the Schmidts.

In June Aly had her second ballet recital, it’s so fun to see her dance, she loves to dance, and loves to perform. In July we went to Oklahoma, I got a few tattoos in memory of Roman. August was pretty low key, just wound the summer down.

September came and Brooke had to go on bed rest and so I basically had to take care of everything just to keep her blood pressure down but it was all worth it because Jackson was born! After many, many hard weeks of worry we got to hold our little boy, as usual I cried in the delivery room. In October Fynn turned 3! The kids dressed up as Batman and Wonder Woman for Halloween. In November we commemorated what would have been Romans 1st birthday, we read him some letters, and at some donuts that morning. We also celebrated Aly’s 5th birthday! I sometimes can’t believe that I am the father of a 5 year old. She’s very smart, and very opinionated, and also asks a TON of difficult questions. She was eating dinner one night and asked me why the ocean was salty.

December we took our family to the beautiful island of Martinique, if you’ve never heard of it, google it and make plans to visit, it’s definitely one of my favorite places that we’ve been to. Christmas has come and gone, and there are only a few hours left before 2019 starts. I look back on 2018 and I am nothing but thankful. Thankful to all the friends and family who supported us in those early days of 2018 when the death of our 3rd child was still fresh, thankful that we were able to bring our 4th son Jackson home. I am reminded of the end of Psalm 73,

“But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.”

I am thankful that God has been so gracious and merciful with us in 2018. We rest in his mercy and grace that the upcoming year is filled with as much joy as 2018 was.

Ron