Reflection

I have been attempting to post this for a while.  And the reason for the delay is blogger will not upload my images and I was still in search for the right words.  I am not really sure that I still have the right words but, I am going to try  the best that I can to get my thoughts and feelings across.  

Over the past couple of months a lot of things have happened/changed in our lives.  Without going into every little detail, they are the sort of things that make you take a step back and look at your self and your life.  Where you have been, where you are, and where you are going (hopefully).  

It seems like life has not always been easy.  And nobody ever said it would be, but you would think that there would be a limit to how much one person, one family could handle.  But I have to always remember the saying, "God doesn't give us more than we can handle."  In the past few months I have questioned just how much more does He think I can handle?  The road in my Christian life has not always been down the straight and narrow.  I have strayed.  But I have always come back to what I know is real.  God is the only way.  In knowing this, I must know that God will help me through what ever comes my way.

Through all of the stages of my life, friends have come and gone.  Then there are the ones who are always there.  The ones you see and/or talk to all the time.  Or the ones you don't see and/or talk to but maybe once in a while but, you know they are always there for you.  A lot of us have connected/reconnected though Facebook.  We laugh and joke about it, however, what a great tool of communication it is.  Friends I had thought I might possibly never talk to again, who were big parts of my life either in high school or college, are now a part of my life again.  I am so very thankful for all of my friends and what they each bring to my life.  They each bring their own unique characteristics into my life.  There are the ones that you had endless conversations with sitting at a kitchen table and wish you could find the time to do that again.  There are the ones, that no matter how hard you try to behave yourself, when you are together you just can't seem to behave.  There are the ones that have been with you through every stage of your life since birth.  There are those who were with you through the "wild" stage of your life.  There are the ones that you could talk to for hours on end about something, about nothing and be totally enlightened when you walk away (and you wish now they didn't live so far away).  There are those you can call up and just cry and they'll wait until you can find your voice again.  There are those that you are just now getting close to and are so excited about what those friendships have in store and excited that they are there to experience this next stage of life with you.  I love all of you!!!  There are times when I have talked with my friends on the phone and at the end of the conversation feel like you are getting off the phone with family and you want to say, "I love you!"  

Through all of lifes ups and downs, I am so glad that I have had the family that God has given me to go through all of it with.  Yes, I have my mom, dad, grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousins but they are also my friends.  And regardless of what life has handed us, it is because of those ups and downs that have made us who we are and have brought us to the place we are.  And I wouldn't trade it for anything.  

I wouldn't feel right if I didn't mention my husband, and my children.  We have been through a lot in our short 4 years together but, it is Michael that helps me stay grounded and see the big picture and remember what it is important.  Michael, Jacob, and Anna Kate are the light in my sometimes dreary days.  Their smiles, laughs, just the sound of their voice help to put everything back into perspective.  What great and amazing gifts God has given me!!!!

I feel as if I have rambled and maybe I didn't have all the right words after all.  But I hope after reading this you all know and realize that you are loved and am so very thankful that God has placed every single one of you in my life.