One Year

Well guys we have been back in our home for exactly one year....today!  I wanted to take a second and spin this in a new light....

When you hit the bottom the fall is no less than ridiculous.  Especially when you hit it from a pretty high rafter.  When I think about where we were prior to September 6, 2014 I see a lot of blessings.

The remodeling was finished and I had a beautiful new kitchen, living area, and laundry room.  We were all doing well in life - two healthy kids, my husband had a job that was going fine, and I just been laid off from my position.  It wasn't a bad time.  It was a blessed time.  The puzzle was fitting together.

The night everything changed we had been on a date, my husband and I.  A nice dinner, some window shopping, just time to enjoy one another's company.  Our beautiful babies were with our amazing sitter at our little cozy home.

Life was good.

And then it happened.  We came home to a disaster.

It is always the calmest before the storm.  And folks, I am so thankful for that.

Imagine if chaos ensued prior to near or complete devastation. It would jade us humans in such  stronger and more debilitating way.  Where would be?

Faithless.

In the past ten years I have learned a varied assortment of lessons.  I have endured trials in life that I never thought I would experience.  They are also experiences that I would never in a million years wish on another person - friend or foe.

However, in each experience there was peace before the fall, invaluable lessons learned during the climb out of the darkest trench, and a renewal at the end of those journeys that I would not change one single thing about.

In ten years I have hit my knees screaming and crying multiple times.

Every single time I have stood back up - renewed, refreshed, and with a beautiful perspective.

I have never been faithless.

There is joy to be found when you have mud on your face from thinking you have given up only to realize you are standing and moving forward.

There is a peace to be found when you feel like you are so terribly alone and you get a visitor, text, email, or call out of the blue to say a simple - "Hey, I was thinking about you."

There is an inexplicable love that surrounds you when someone you don't even know takes a moment out of their day to pay it forward in your time of need.

No, I have not been faithless.  I have been filled with faith that has blessed me ten fold and not just by a structure that could be rebuilt.  My faith has covered me in friends and strangers, smiles in a grocery store, emails from a blog post, a daughter who can say the funniest things at just the right moment innocently unknowing.  My faith has shielded me with a husband who can make me roll with laughter, a mom who has never turned from me, and a best friend who has been my sounding board and shoulder countless times.

Today I just want to challenge you to not be faithless.  Hold tight to what you cannot see because I am living proof that it is tangible in a completely awe inspiring way if you just accept it.  It will carry you, it will raise you, it will hold you and it will make this life so much more meaningful and magical.

It is the reason I say to you....

Merry Christmas.