20/20

I look back on the last 3 months and I am amazed how far we have come! Rachel's health is continuing to improve. If fact, I think we have back a healthy teenage girl. It has been wonderful to see her get stronger and healthier in the past few weeks. We have had her working with a physical therapist to help her regain what a year of sickness had taken away. This last week has been wonderful. In the last week she has totaled about 10 miles of walking or running. It has been wonderful to watch this transpire! It was an encouragement to see the difference last week when she was sick with a cold. For the first time in months - she was just sick with a cold. She did not look like she was dying, she did not loose strength, and she got better.

I look back on everything that has transpired since the beginning of the year. The stress levels in our home had reached and all time high. The driving back and forth 160 miles plus each day was taking a toll on our family. There was such a lack of time being able to be home, to do normal routine household tasks, and our schedule was so full trying to accommodate everything that sometimes it felt as though we hardly had time to breathe! All of this was more than we could continue doing much longer. Rob and I were both concerned because we noticed our stress levels were so high that we were short with the kids, tired all the time and the whole atmosphere of our family life had reached an all time low. We hated being home ( because there were so many things staring us in the face here that we never had time to do); and having the energy to be parents all but gone.

I think what has amazed me the most about the transition time has been how long it has taken us to get things back to what we knew as normal when we home schooled before. We are just now seeing results. At the beginning of the year Rachel was still quite ill and we had a surgery staring us in the face that we could only hope would help things. Since she had her tonsils out we have seen a steady progression of health return. Our financial situation was a great source of stress. (Having to put $45.00 worth of gas into the van every morning does that to a person.) We finally have a little bit of breathing room on a week to week basis. I have enjoyed filling the van up with gas on Saturday and not having to return to the gas station until the whole next Saturday!

The whole atmosphere in our home has changed drastically. We finally have had time to just be a family. The past several days we have had significant, enjoyable family bonding times.

Have you ever had one of those times in life when you look back and you know you did what God wanted you to do - but it was harder than ever thought it would be. I know that God wanted our kids in school for the year in a half they were there. I missed them so much - but it was a benefit in so many ways. The schedule we had to keep, the money we had to spend to keep the hectic lifestyle stretched us, exposed weakness and in the long run made us stronger. God was using that in our lives to develop us in so many ways. Rachel being sick has exposed the weakness of our faith, shattered the faulty faith and built anew a deeper faith in consecration to God to see Him accomplish His will in our lives - no matter what!

It seems this week I have been able to look back and see what God has been doing. It is nice to be able to see ahead too. To feel that this trial is coming to a close - patience in this trial has had her perfect work - and we have grown. There are more trials coming; but the strengthening of our faith through this one has been accomplished and we are more prepared and ready for the upcoming trials that await us.

I am going to enjoy laughing with my kids, playing with them and understanding more deeply the true blessing of family. Sometimes you forget what you have until you have almost lost it. I want to cherish them everyday.

Thanks for stopping by, I am so glad you did.

Blessings,

~Martie