2017 in Review

This year had been mostly calm for us despite the country underwent tough challenges. I am still holding on to a decent job. I still am looking forward to coming to work everyday. Most of the people I worked with inspired me.

Highlight of this year had to be my trip back to Vietnam after 16 years. I had a chance to spend some quality time with my dad, brother, sisters, and extended family. They still have tremendous love for me. It was an emotional trip for me. I hope to return in a year or two as my dad is getting older. Although he is still in good health for his age, I must not take it for granted. In contrast, my mom is getting weaker and weaker. I hope that she will do better next year.

This year’s memorable moments had to be my wife’s family reunion. The passing of one of her uncles during the gathering was hard, but it demonstrated the bonding of a strong-tie family. He will be remembered every year at the reunion.

For our little family, the boys are growing way too fast. Đạo already hit third grade. His is doing well in school. Đán started kindergarten without knowing the alphabet. With a little support, however, he had mastered it. Now he started to learn to read. Xuân is not even two, yet he is catching up super fast to his brothers. He started to talk quite early and had developed his skills in communication. He knows exactly what he wants.

For my wife and I, we had our ups and downs, our gains (mostly weights for me) and losses, and our blessings and misfortunes. The good thing is that we had the formers more than the latters.

2017 began with a terrible few months for our country. I still can’t get over the fact that he is the president. The later quarter of the year, things seemed to get a bit better. I am hopeful for 2018.