What a Difference a Year Makes...

One year ago today, I was completely overwhelmed.  Darrell had been gone already for almost two months, though he was on his way home for the weekend.  Will had just had surgery and been in the hospital for three days, and had a setback just that day.  The movers were coming to help us get out of our home of seven years the very next morning.  The kids and I were moving into a temporary place that I was quickly realizing wasn't as nice as I'd hoped.  I was heading to Indy for a quick trip for my brand new job the next week, and then starting work full time from our temporary place the week after that.

I was a mess, but I had no choice but to trust it would all work out.  And it did.

It was a tough several months, but a year later, things feel much more solid and stable.  Instead of moving away from our beloved home and friends, we're on the way to making new friends. We like our new house perhaps even better than the old house. Both Darrell and I have stable, though of course not perfect and sometimes trying, jobs.  Both kids have made friends here and seem to like their schools and activities.  We found a church home quickly.  We lost a beloved pet (Chester), but after grieving for a while, we have sweet Simba.  It is starting to feel like we belong.  And that's such a good feeling.

I know others experience even more trying circumstances than we have over the past year or so.  But I have to believe that after the trying times, it gets better.  After the storm, sometimes there is a rainbow.  After the pain, there is peace.  Sometimes you have to just get through it, and there is beauty on the other side.  And usually there is even beauty along the difficult journey, if you just look hard enough.  I hope you see some of that beauty today.