2022 Year in Review
Well, another year in the rearview, becoming hazy and the earliest parts fading into the blur. But before it’s all out of sight, I wanted to sit down and capture all of the joy and sadness alike, the beauty and the thorns, as well as the tenderness and hope this year has instilled in Micah and myself alike.
It’s been maybe our wildest year yet, which, as you know, means a lot coming from our recent few hard years. This one though, has held more space for exploring both ourselves and the world and it’s just been so cool I wanted to fill you in if you’ve got a few minutes to read.
So, rewinding to this time last year, we were likewise hunkering down here in Colorado for Christmas. I’d been traveling heavily - as in home maybe four weeks total from mid-September through early December - for my territory recruiting role at English Language Institute (ELIC). While it was an honor to work for an org that I’d served with while in college as a teacher overseas (in Hong Kong and Vietnam), it turned out to be far more taxing on our recent move (August 2021) than I’d anticipated… So, of course, as the new year approached I was weary and holding onto hope that God would show me another way…
Meanwhile, Micah was (and still is) thriving at Flatirons Church, which has very effortlessly become our home and community away from home. We spent last Christmas night with our pastor and his wife at their cabin up near Estes Park in a winter wonderland before I left for my next trip on NYE. As you might imagine, I’m thrilled to be here, home in Colorado, this year as we turn the page on a new calendar year for 2023.
Between the January shuffle of preparing for my upcoming Winter/Spring work travel, I was able to find a few days to peruse Indeed and do and little scoping for new/other opportunities. I found a gem amidst many less than suitable fits, and it quickly manifested itself into a more than a casual conversation about the role, and an actual shift in title and role to suit my background in non-profit development (fundraising). February 22nd I started as the Development Manager at MindSpark Learning, a start-up not-for-profit in Lakewood, CO, about an hour south of our home in Lafayette. While I do commute three days a week, I am fortunate to work remotely twice weekly as I need to… and I work with some badass and brilliant colleagues who are all devoted to advancing teacher education and student success as a byproduct. It’s hard work and we’re still in the “finding our lane” phase in year five of the organization’s history, but it is a thrill and a tall task to lead all of our funding efforts, especially as we move into year six.
All this said, I am so grateful that this opportunity came when it did as it answered a threefold prayer: Lord let me do something I know I can do, let me be able to build a community and truly live in Colorado, and let me be able to contribute more financially to our family… all of those came to fruition. Being the way I am, about three weeks after starting this full-time position, I stumbled across a Boulder boutique on Pearl Street Mall that needed some weekend part-time help… and in Kelsey fashion, I chatted with the store manager and immediately started mid-March. I’ve been there ever since working on some Saturdays and Sundays. It’s a beautiful store called Island Farm, with the apparel, gifts and home goods reflecting its namesake. The owner has become a personal mentor for me, and as we move into the new year, I’ll be stepping away from the floor to hopefully help with special events and pop-ups and assist with how we give back to our local community… my favorite thing about retail as a whole. So, exciting!!
While my work saga has been unfolding throughout 2022, Micah has been simply crushing it over in his role at Flatirons as the PR/Social Media Specialist for our head pastor, Jim Burgen. Not only does he wear the dual hats of running the communications and media for a megachurch pastor, but he is continuously asked to help with special projects within the church at large. His experience and expertise make him quite a desirable consultant internally and elsewhere ;) He and Jim began to build out plans for more men’s-specific work later in 2022 while also planning much travel to see and capture some of the world’s most iconic sites as it relates to Christianity as well as some of the church’s strongest partners.
Two major international marathon trips happened in April and October/November of this year. The latter one I’ll share about shortly, but back in the Spring they went to visit Greece and Israel to visit the Holy Land (and seemingly everything in between). Of course, they found the world’s oldest family-run tattoo shop and everyone got some ink. Micah chose St. George slaying the dragon, an ancient story representing the original hero’s journey of a man standing up for his faith and choosing courage over cowardice. After two weeks gone at the end of April, we reminisced about our elopement here in Boulder just three years prior. We officially celebrated on May 10th when we went to Red Rocks in Morrison, CO for the second time to see Ray Lamontagne, one of our all-time favorites. Hands down, best show I’ve seen there and quite possibly top three ever (and I’ve been to A LOT of shows). That date just so happened to be the date we got our marriage certificate back in Kentucky in 2019 (yes, we forgot to get our marriage certificate when we eloped in Colorado – oopsie!) so it felt extra fitting.
While Micah was traveling the world, I was planning some fun girls trips to kick off the summer. I got to see one of my college and lifetime best friends, Steph, in Austin, TX over Memorial Day weekend. We had a blast just walking the town into the ground, eating our way through the magic that the city offers and sweating through it all. Not long after - as in, a couple nights home in my own bed - I flew to Arizona to meet my gal pal crew from my twenties - Caroline, Megan and Ash. We stayed at the *cutest* AirBnb on Sedona, hiked Seven Sacred Pools (turns out, June is dry so there were no pools lol), made a day trip to the Grand Canyon, soaked in a spa day amidst driving through the vortexes, got some turquoise and the best food in between and kissed the sunset sky every night out of gratitude because it was so, so good.
After kicking Summer off in style, I went solo to a work conference– Collaborative – in Philly hosted by our newly onboarding fundraising platform, Classy. It was the best work conference I’ve ever been to, and was a treat to meet such amazing people, mostly similarly-minded cause-driven women who were rocking in their spaces too in the nonprofit world. There was one night four of us went to a family-style Italian dinner at A Mano and had the best handmade with love meal I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying. Y’all Philly is COOL and so fun, even alone.
*Side note*: Something I learned about myself this year was how much I enjoy traveling alone, either personally for pleasure or professionally for networking… I thrive in those environments far more than I’d ever given myself credit for prior. So, fun takeaway, I am indeed an introvert who find her way into socializing just fine with strangers and on her own terms 🙂
When I returned from Philly, we went on our first of (sadly) only two camping trips in 2022. This first one, however, was to a new spot for us outside of Steamboat Springs with some friends, Fiona and Clint plus three dogs. The boys fished, we had some of the best camping meals and fireside chats we’ve ever enjoyed while out in the wild and capped the weekend with a visit to downtown Steamboat, one of my newfound favorite mountain towns.
In my desired fashion, we did celebrate our official wedding celebration date of June 22nd with a premium sushi dinner at Uchi in Denver. After 18 “courses” - each course was only two to four bites - all chosen my their chef, we left so happy and delighted despite our bank account so sad… overall, #worthit for our annual commemoration of another year married.
Right after the 4th of July, my parents paid us a visit for a few nights… They’d never been to Colorado before, so I had to make sure I showed them some of the best. We did a day in Ft. Collins to putz around my favorite Colorado downtown areas… and we got to experience the New Belgium Brewery tour (best brewery tour I’ve ever seen). We also went up to Rocky Mountain National Park in the tundra (if you’ve never been to the tundra landscape before it’s so cool, but be prepared for *very* thin air and whipping wind). A treat to host, followed quickly by our friend Ryan staying overnight with us while passing through.
*Side Note #2*: We discovered we love to host people… in doses. We LOVE having people retreat at our place, but between all of our back and forth travels both past and present, we can really only do it about every other month. So, if you’re in the market for a CO adventure, hit us up in advance so we can reserve your space at casa de DeYoung ;)
As the close of Summer approached in August, a lot was happening. I started an intensive women’s book study on the book Garden City. It was every Friday at 7:30 a.m. (yikes! Sorry to those who were a part that I made that call… this year, I’ll chill out). It was so good to build not only that community, but also learn deeply about the work, rest and how to live out callings while in this life – highly recommend whether you’re religious or not. On top of that, Micah was organizing and hosting a sold-out retreat the last weekend of the month called Rocky Mountain Men’s Summit. Per usual, he crushed it and made it a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the nearly 500 men from across the country who attended and it inspired even more events/content.
*Side note #3*: If you are curious and want updates about the summit in 2023, or you are simply curious about what in the world Micah is up to, you can join the mailing list - “The Herd” - here.
As it turns out, I was also booked to do a women’s retreat that same weekend focused on uncovering the “shadow self”-- it was called The Unleashed Journey. Hands down, that weekend was one of the most formative experiences (including 13 years of therapy) in my adult life… so much so, that I recently committed to staffing a weekend in February 2023 here in Colorado. If you’re a woman you is curious about the world of therapy, healing and self-discovery, hit me up… the experience is offered in select cities nationwide & is growing.
Once more Labor Day weekend camping trip, we grabbed the last spot in Eagle, CO just outside of vail on a fishing camp and enjoyed the hell out of some decompression time. While we had a nice ease into the Fall in Colorado, between working weekends and Micah preparing for an even more travel-filled Fall, we didn’t get a chance to see the Aspens turn. I was scheduled to run a 5K for the second year up in Crested Butte and we were going to camp before like we did last year, but I got COVID :/ So after a couple weeks of quarantining and feeling just bleh, October was upon us which came with a lot of hustle and bustle. Not to mention, we had just started volunteering on Tuesday nights with Flatirons’ College Ministry… yup, we are overschedulers, it just comes naturally to both of us.
For better or worse, the calm before the storm didn’t last too terribly long. When October hit we had even more lined up on the docket than prior months. Micah was slated to travel October 24th thru November 5th to Africa, Netherlands and Scotland… we found a way for me to join him alongside some other ladies from church including Robin (Jim’s wife) and my sister-in-law, Kara, as Jesse, our Executive Pastor who happens to be Micah’s oldest brother. But before I hopped across the pond, I booked a life dream trip to see and meet my favorite author - Anne Lamott - at a writing weekend she was hosting in Novato, California (NorCal, just above Sausalito and below Sonoma) called the Heal.Create conference. It was a beautiful, soul-stirring experience that was equally enlightening and inspiring but left much to process… and, for better or worse, two nights after I got home to CO, I was on another plane to the U.K.
So we - our group of eight - had our shared five magical days in Scotland, the motherland of my maternal grandparents. We saw so much in such a short time. From a couple scotch distillery tours in the western countryside, to St. Andrews and the eastern fisherman’s coast, and a day staying close to our hotel in Edinburgh, and fun dinners out every night we painted the town red. I could go on for days about this trip, and perhaps I will in a future travel post, but all you need to know for now is that it was a thrill and terribly exhausting all at once.
We spent the middle part of November simultaneously unpacking from our recent travels and repacking to spend the week of the Thanksgiving holiday plus the weekend following back in old Kentucky and spending a couple nights visiting my two dearest in Nashville afterwards. So, on the Saturday before the holiday, we went back to the Bluegrass for the 18-hour trek. We enjoyed a very DeYoung-style Thanksgiving on Sunday where the whole family got to do an indoor bungee/fitness class (the experience was so funny I couldn’t stop crying from laughter). We saw dear friends with new babes, old friends from so many seasons of our childhood and adolescent lives, even took my parents to a fancy steak dinner to celebrate the belated birthdays. We enjoyed the official holiday with my mom’s and dad’s sides, and I got to visit my paternal grandparents Friday before we headed to Cashville alongside my cousin Virginia who is like a sister to me. It was a very full, but very fill-your-cup kind of week. We spent the next two nights in Nash staying with my beloved Haley and her husband Will, and got to get Saturday lunch with my girl Steph and her husband Kas. Again, a fill-my-cup kind of weekend, but damn was I tired.
After making the grand drive to return home to Colorado, I was becoming aware that my slight trouble sleeping previous nights was turning into more insomnia and I was simply depleted from all the emotional output over the past six weeks. So, in agreement with Micah, I checked myself into an inpatient facility in Louisville, CO just a few miles from our place for eight nights to get some meds adjusted and acute care and honestly, check out for a week from life because my tank was so empty. Luckily, while it wasn’t done with much care or titration (building up to a new dose which is very encouraged with mood stabilizers and any anti-convulsant), the medication adjustments worked and got some solid nights of sleep (and that’s stayed the case post discharge on 12/9). I wasn’t given the chance to go outside or see the sun during my stay which really put a damper on the experience overall, but I survived, yet again, and am trying to remain grateful for good insurance, a few kind therapists and technicians there who made the stay bearable and not the absolute worst hospital stay I’ve ever had (it was a close second though).
While it wasn’t ideal, I am certainly blessed by my boss and workplace that sends flowers, gives paid leave for this kind of medical crisis, and sends their support… and I’m blessed by a husband, brother, parents, in-laws, pastors and friends who remain steady, caring and encouraging despite the hurdles and happenstance of a wildly lived life this Fall, really this whole year. I am so thankful for my outpatient team of providers who are tending to my holistic care – if you’re in CO and need any resources/ recommendations, holler at me ‘because mine are top tier, I promise. Thankfully too, Micah realizes my penchant for Christmas parties and festivities and we were able to attend all three we had on the books this year. I even got to see the Nutcracker last Sunday night with Kara and my two nieces here, Clare and Kate 🙂
As I come to a close on this year’s wrap-up, I’m astounded. Amazed and in awe of how much life was lived, how much energy was exerted and created, and how much our friends and family (both blood relatives and “chosen” family), have been so instrumental in our growth and our not losing our minds. (Yes, I lost my sleep and got a little extra hyped post this holiday, but honestly, it was far outside of my past typical manic episodes– for that, I’m also very grateful). Our people both near and far (*hint: that’s YOU!*) have played such a role in both of us having and keeping a sound mind and continued energy for the journey.
That’s really why I wrote this post. Yes, for me to rewind and recap what’s unfolded, but also to tell you as my audience and reader here, THANK YOU from the deepest well within me for carrying us. For a text, a call, a visit and card an “I love you” or a “That’s awesome!” as you’ve shared in our excitement, or even more recently an “I’m sorry…” to Micah or myself as we’ve waded yet again through the tightrope that is mental illness versus mental health. We are so incredibly lucky– no, blessed– to have you in our circle, our corners and our community.
I hope this lifts your spirit toward Hope, the only one we have really in this life, toward Christ. What a gift it is to remember the reason we celebrate Christmas at all – the birth of our Lord Jesus. How fitting it is to be reminded of why we have hope, the source of joy and the purpose in suffering.
As we dawn a new year too, I pray you experience the wonder, the vision and the motivation to both pause in the most resetting kind of way, and then to persist with all the zeal you need and the passion to carry you through in 2023 and beyond. Don’t lose sight of love and faithfulness, and may you never lose hope. Be blessed my dears, and take care of yourselves.
Love + Light + BIG Gratitude,
Kelsey (& Micah) 🙂