Happy New Year! 🌟 Do you make resolutions for the year? I don’t make resolutions, but I pick a word for the year. This is something I’ve done since college and it’s a way to define the year ahead for me. This year, my word is a little different. 2022: the year of continued hope is the way I like to look at it.
In the past, I’ve shared my word for the year with you: check out my word of the year for 2018, 2019 and 2020. I never did share a blog post about my word of the year in 2021, but my word was hope. I went into 2021, still not sure what my word would be. One word kept pressing on my heart: hope.
Near the end of January last year and sobbing in the bathroom because Aunt Flo came again, I knew what my word would be. God kept pressing the word HOPE into me, and so that is how my word for 2021 came to be. I didn’t know it back then, but I was going to need so much hope through the year. But God knew I was going to need to hold onto hope as we battled infertility.
So when it was time to pick the word for 2022, hope was the word still in my heart. Now, I’ve never had a repeat word for the year, but somehow I feel like hope needs to stay another year.
Hope has to continue on in my heart and soul. And with that, 2022: the year of continued hope came to be. I guess maybe it’s more of a phrase for the year, and not a word. But either way, I sure do like the way it sounds.
2022: The Year of Continued Hope
Going through infertility, you have to always hold onto hope. Hope that this medicated cycle or treatment will work. Hope that this is going to be your cycle. You have to hold onto the hope that your IUI or IVF cycle will work. The hope that this is going to be your year or your month to see those two pink lines. Without hope, you have nothing.
So I have to cling on to hope no matter what – or else I fear I may give up.
But I can’t give up now. I’ve put my body through so much in 2021 and we’ve been through so much pain and heartbreak together. Giving up isn’t an option. Because we will not give up on bringing our baby into this world.
And so, as we step into another year, I am still holding onto that hope. Somedays that hope may be as small as a mustard seed, but it’s still there. Because I have to hold onto the hope that soon it’s going to be us (all of us in the trenches of fertility treatments) that will see those two pink lines. And I’m holding that hope close for each and everyone of you.
Read more about Hope in the Wait: Our Infertility Journey
Hope for the Blog
In addition to our fertility treatments, I have some other plans for this little ol’ blog. I know that I let Sweet Southern Oaks go for awhile. And I’m sorry about that, but my head and heart couldn’t think of anything besides fertility treatments. I can’t let that rule my life anymore though – and I need to get back to doing things I love.
What do I love? Y’all! Decorating. DIYs. Photography. Blogging. I love this blog and all of you sweet friends that I have virtually met through this little blogging gig. To those of you that stuck around, thank you! 💛
So here’s to getting back to this blog and breathing new life into Sweet Southern Oaks. Here’s to 2022: the year of continued hope. And here’s to hope for us all in 2022. ✨
Do you pick a word for the year? If so, what is your word for 2022?
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Terry says
I love you! I love your word for the year!
Ashlee says
Thank you! 🙂