This year is going to be so much better!

January 7, 2023

Rob and I have had this running joke, it’s a saying we’d often say in jest about how the next year would be so much better. We’d reflect throughout the year whenever something tough would happen, whether it be managing a hospital stay, business challenges, relationship challenges…whatever we were going through that we were having a hard time with, we’d say, “But next year is going to be so much better!”


And then something like brain surgery would happen. But that was 2017 and you know what? 2018 will be so much better.

We’d have challenges with our business or getting Reagan the services she deserves. Or, breast cancer at 38 years of age.

But you know what? That was 2019 and 2020. It has to be. So. Much. Better.

And then we all witnessed a global pandemic. And if you’re still here at the beginning of 2023, congratufreakinglations. Like what did we all just witness and go through together as a globe? Documented in every form and fashion on tik tok, IG, youtube, youtube shorts, linkedIn, 24/7 news online, on your app and dinging notifications on repeat. Apple News had to be removed from my phone and I just added it back on about a month ago. In 2020 I was having anxiety and panic attacks by being constantly triggered at the thought of covid, Reagan getting sick and us losing everything again. I think if we’re honest, we’ve all been experiencing trauma in some way shape or form just due to the state of the world we live in right now. The news headlines I feel have only been fueling more despair in our world.

Do you know why we would say that the next year would be so much better? Because we always had so much hope that it would be. And you have to hope for your future like the verse in Jeremiah 29:11 says. Hoping in new ways is something that we’ve done consistently for many years. Infertility caused us to hope in a different way. Adoption caused us to hope in a different way. Watching our one year old suffer a stroke, TBI and brain damage required we hope in a different way.

When Reagan had her crisis, I flung myself to Jesus, I had to get God’s word engrained into my soul b/c I knew I had to have that truth in order to survive and prosper. The truth was (and is) that I cannot do this by myself.


In a direction of personal growth for myself, I’m heading back to counseling in 2023. I have realized that there’s a lot of medical trauma and PTSD that is hanging out within me. I’m doing EMDR which is intense (and I’ve only done one session) but I know this is a necessary step toward healing. And, I think it will open up some writing floodgates, so if you’ve enjoyed these blogs over the last ten years, 2023 should bring a few more. I share this to remove any stigma people may have about how difficult it is to process life altering events. Talking about it is important. Therapy is important. Even though Reagan’s crisis was nine years ago, I still carry with me many of those emotions from that month long hospital stay in 2014, and they sit just under the surface of my big smile and loud laugh. I can be transported back to those hospital hallways in an instant and the tears flood my eyes.

Time does not heal all wounds, whoever came up with that saying should take it back. I’ve been writing and talking and processing our family’s life altering events for TEN years! I’ve continued coming back to this blog and putting my thoughts out there so that our story is told, Reagan’s story is marveled at…her struggles and triumphs, sharing our whole family’s navigation after being placed on a course we never anticipated, for ten years! She is going to be ten this year and I can’t even believe it. I firmly believe that it’s our hope in God and Jesus that have sustained us.

“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

Romans 8:24-25

Even though the last decade brought so many challenges each and every year, the years did get better. I’ve learned that the different seasons of life bring about lots of changes, sometimes big and life altering, others small but impactful. Relationships end, we lose loved ones, friendships fracture; life is complicated, and this is what I’ve really seen this past year. Life is complicated, for all of us.

But, looking back on 2022, I can say, it was one of the best years for the Wurzel’s. The biggest news of the year is that Rob sold his insurance agency. He’s been in insurance for 23 years and owned his agency for 14 years. In January of 2022, Rob felt very strongly that God had something more for him and the prompting to sell his insurance agency could not be ignored. Rob contacted a business broker and through lots of prayer and discussions Rob sold on June 1 of 2022. He’s super excited to be retired from insurance and working on more life giving and creative projects.

Reagan also booked a modeling job at Disney through her agency, as the principle talent and she totally crushed it. To know the depths of the lows we were at, and to have gone through this very long and arduous valley, it reminds me of the verse Rob has had on his IG for the last nine years.


“Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.”

Job 8:7

And that’s why, I think 2023 is going to be a great year. It’s because we’ve been taking God at his word for a long time now and God gives us hope when he tells us that his plans for us are abundantly more than we could have ever asked or dreamed.

Following God is amazing, I highly recommend it. When you know he will sustain you, give you hope, and provide things that you never even dreamed up, and you know you can trust in him enough to pivot in an entirely new direction…these are the reasons I’m so excited for 2023. This was all God’s idea. Praying for so much good in 2023, for us and for you.

xoxo
AM

comments +

  1. Diane

    January 8th, 2023 at 1:22 pm

    2 Corinthians 4:6
    For God, who said
    “Let light shine out of darkness,”
    made his light shine in
    our hearts to give us the
    light of the knowledge
    of God’s glory displayed
    in the face of Christ.”
    ♥️ AM, How you, Rob and Reagan give the glory to God, how you carry your story with a bright light and how you weave your beautiful faith into everything led me to seek scripture which led
    me to 2 Corinthians 4. Here is a small portion ( 4 : 6 )

  2. Katie Rhoads

    January 20th, 2023 at 12:12 am

    So happy for you guys! Beauty for ashes!

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