Ruiz Review 2022 | January 2023

Dear Friends,

Every year my family and I reflect on the previous year and share our highlights, insights and lessons we’ve learned, and those that have made the greatest impact on our lives.

Here are my son, Samuel’s, highlights of 2022. He is now 15 years old:

2022 has been the greatest year of my life so far. In February, my 8th grade class visited Washington DC, and I was honored with being picked to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I’ve always struggled with pride, and I can tell you I was humbled beyond measure this year. In April, I went on a mission trip to Baja California, Mexico. While I had known it was reality for some people, I couldn’t believe the things I saw. What puzzled me was why these people who had nothing were so happy. It dawned on me that the only thing they had was God, and to these people, He was everything. That's how I hope to live.

Oh yeah, I graduated 8th grade too. A month later, I went on a houseboat trip with friends through the church. My eyes were opened to how amazing God is. In July, my parents took my best friend and I on a trip to Hawaii, one I will never forget. Then, high school began. In the last few months, I’ve started a new chapter at Berean Christian High School, placed second overall in our school’s cross country league, continue to shred guitar every day, and I’m preparing myself for baseball with high hopes to make varsity. Hope y’all had a great year too, and if I could leave you with one thing, remember God is always with you, you just gotta open your eyes.

Below are the 2022 highlights from my husband, Rob …

Lots of trips with and spending more time with you (aww!), spending more time with friends on the golf course, snowboarding, Cabo, Samuel getting to experience lots of trips without us, hiking Las Trampas, Samuel going to HS, our trips to Calistoga, seeing Earth Wind and Fire, Santana, Norah Jones and Pink Floyd in concert, Maui, watching you preach and win the championship belt at the family retreat, hanging out in SF again at various times.

Love my husband!

As for me ..

I am most grateful for the number of trips we were blessed to experience. In retrospect I think we definitely made up for the time we “lost” to travel these past 2 years. The highlights of those trips for me were the spa days in Paso with Rob, a romantic dinner on the beach overlooking the Sea of Cortez, incredibly scrumptious food & wine pairings, waterfall rappelling in Maui and the trip to Calistoga with my cousin & her boyfriend.

Throughout the year we experienced a few simple, unexpected surprises that brought so much joy and laughter - roller skating (yes, we still can!) and, while on a family hike, we discovered a trampoline at the top of one of the hills we climbed so, naturally, we jumped to our hearts delight. We took Samuel to his 1st live concert (Earth, Wind & Fire and Santana). What a blast that was!

Personally, I was blessed to be part of an amazing cohort called Preacher Chicks and I had the privilege of preaching my 1st sermon at a wonderful church in Hayward. I even got to participate in hula worship through my friend's ministry in San Leandro.

Professionally we were thrilled to not only help our clients buy, sell and invest in real estate, we were able to establish even more lifelong friends. We are truly blessed. We know we couldn’t do what we do without the trust and faith of our clients, friends and family. Your continued support and trust in us allows us to maintain our donations to several non-profits that we are passionate about (St. Jude’s, Generations United, CPC, Kids Against Hunger and K-Love just to name a few). We’ve also been able to volunteer in the communities we serve on several occasions throughout the year (packing food for the refugees in Ukraine, wrapping Christmas gifts for under-resourced families and volunteering at local community events) and, of course, we continue to donate blood.

This year we are looking forward to helping more people - whether it’s through the non-profits we support, the organizations we volunteer, our friends & family who may need our help, or the people we are fortunate to assist in real estate - our heart is to help people get more of what they want!

And, personally, I’m looking forward to more adventures & memory making with my family, watching Samuel play baseball, experiencing & learning new things and maybe, just maybe, this will be the year I meet my family in the Philippines!

Here’s to an amazing year ahead for us all! I’m so grateful to know each of you and I look forward to connecting with you in 2023!

With love & gratitude,

Rica