Ten Years

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of our fire.  Ten years.  Hard to believe.  As we reflected on how far we've come since then, it was an exercise in wonderment and gratitude.  Some of the events of the past 10 years have been good, some have been challenging, but either way it's a lot of water under the bridge since then.

~We've had almost 4 more kids since then, the oldest of which is almost 9 years old, and the youngest of which will be born in the next couple of months.
~Shane finished his engineering degree and has been working as a full-time engineer for 6 years.
~I quit working after a total of 12 years of working at home, 9-1/2 of which were after the fire.
~We embarked into the wonderful world of homeschooling and are now in our 5th year of that.
~We've moved 6 times between 2 states.
~Benjamin, who was not quite 2, is now almost 12 years old.  Elizabeth, who was 5 months old, is now 10-1/2.
~We've gone from living on a very rural farm to the suburbs, to a not-quite-as-rural-as-the-last-one smaller farm, and plan to stay here for the foreseeable future.
~Many of the people who were living at Granite Ranch at the time of the fire are no longer there.  Mostly of note, Glen's family is now living in the Salt Lake area.  Keith (Glen's brother) was killed in a car accident in 2005 and his family now lives in a different small town in north-central Utah.
~Joshua spent a week in the hospital with bacterial meningitis in 2010.
~Shane's health suddenly deteriorated starting in August 2009, for which we still have no clear answers, and which still waxes and wanes from time to time.
~Benjamin was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (high-functioning autism spectrum disorder) at the age of 8, which we are certain is not from the fire, as we were noticing "issues" with him before the fire.

I'm sure there are more, but that's what I can come up with off the top of my head right now.

And then there is how far Shane and the kids have come physically.

Benjamin then:

Benjamin now:

Elizabeth then:

Elizabeth now:

 Shane then:

Shane now:

Ten years.  Amazing.