A new year stands before all of us, and I don't know about the rest of you, but the idea of an entire year just waiting to be mapped out, a fresh slate waiting to be filled up with actions and choices, just makes me all a flutter! I love New Year's Eve, the excitement, the small sense of naughtiness that the children feel when they get to stay up late, and the togetherness of friends and family ringing in the New Year with one another.

So what will 2008 bring for you? For some this may be the year that you finally stop talking about pursuing a stepparent adoption, and start doing something about it. For other families perhaps 2008 will be the completion of their stepparent adoption, or the very first anniversary of a stepparent adoption, which of course will require major party planning, as that is definitely something to celebrate!

Will 2008 be the year that you and your adopted stepchild form a closer bond with one another? Take a special trip together, or sign up for a hobby together, like tennis, bowling, or heck even basket weaving.

Will 2008 be the year that you and your spouse put aside all of the stress of adoption issues, abandonment issues, and special needs children and focus on each other and the relationship that you share between the two of you? Perhaps it will be the year that you take that second honeymoon together, giving yourselves time to remind each other why it is you got married in the first place!

Maybe 2008 is the year that you decide to become a stay at home parent, because your children need you to be at home, or the year a stay at home parent decides that it is time to get back to a nine to five job.

May 2008 bring you hope, love, peace, knowledge, and last but certainly not least, may it bring your waist in those last few inches that you have been dying to get rid of for way too long to count now, making this the absolute best bathing suit season of your life!