2009 Year in Review

Pre-2009 Overview:

Coming into 2009, my marriage was about 3 months old, and I had a good-paying job that I'd been working for over a year and a half, and I was beginning to make some progress in getting some of my smaller bills paid off.

The 2009 Bad News:

Unfortunately (in most ways), I lost my job only a few weeks into the year, which set back almost all of the financial progress I made and put so much stress on my marriage that I sometimes wondered whether it would survive. There were times I felt like I was a broke student again, living on $ 20 for a full 2 weeks, eating off the dollar menu at fast-food places, and questioning my progress in life and place in this world.

The 2009 Good News:

Thankfully, as He has always done, God helped me to survive and brought me through the other side as a smarter man into a better place than I could have imagined when times were at their worst. Despite the hardships, I trust God with my life more now than I ever have before. No matter how bad things get, He proves time and again that He will never put more on me than I can bear, and that he will never let me slip over the edge into such a bad place that he can never bring me back.

I've been at my new job about 6 weeks now, and I like it pretty well. My co-workers and bosses are great, the work I am doing is tough but interesting, and I think my career and finances are back on track. I am extremely grateful that my marriage survived the beating it took in its first year, and even though there is work yet to be done, the survival of my marriage through such tough times gives me hope for a better marital future.

2009 Conclusion:

2009 was definitely an interesting and eventful year, but all things being equal, I am glad it's in the books, and I am hopeful that 2010 will be much, much better.