Enfant du Roi: A New Year Has Begun...

This past week I kept looking back to the many happenings of 2011 for the Webb family... We were excited to have Christian home for most of the year (he re-deployed in October 2011) and then excited his deployment ended early and he was back with us for the holidays! Erin finished out the second grade at Vogelweh Elementary School and is now full-swing into the third grade. It is amazing how much she has grown just over the last six months - it seems that each day she becomes more of a little lady and less of a little girl. It kind of makes this mommy's heart sad.

Then...after two "clean" biopsies in March/April, I went in to have the right lobe of my thyroid removed due to four large growths. Unfortunately, one week after my surgery, I received the call that the growths removed were cancerous and I was immediately sent back to the operating table. After nearly one week in ICU (did you know that you have your own private nurse sitting at your door in the ICU??!!) I went home to recuperate and wait on my treatment schedule. Needless to say, 2011 has been filled with clinic visits for me, taking LOTS of medications and very carefully watching my calcium levels, but I am so thankful that I had the "good cancer," and that my life was able to stay as normal as possible during treatment.

While we all tend to look back at the past year, the Webb family is anxiously looking forward to 2012! There are many exciting things going on in our home, including: moving back to the U.S. (this is a HUGE task!), me getting a new job, Erin starting a new school in a new town and finally...preparations will begin for a family addition! While leaving Europe will be bittersweet (I have to admit that the travel is marvelous!), we are looking forward to spending holidays in the U.S. - hopefully closer to our families. Christian is looking forward to going to a new base - you know that you are made for the military when you can't stay in one job/area for any length of time before getting the "itch!"