Blog Birthday

It's so hard to believe that I've maintained this blog for one year! I wasn't sure when I started out how everything would go, but I've been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to maintain and at how therapeutic it can be! You guys are like a living journal of sorts! LOL!

Looking back, I still feel like I did here. I am still convicted that we should share of ourselves and of our hearts. That's how we can be "real" with others. Others who experience similar life events, similar hurts and pains, similar triumphs and joys. Or, even different life moments. We can give of ourselves with the hope that others can also experience the love and peace from Christ. And, maybe blogging is a fairly insignificant way to do so, but it is still a means, I feel.

Blogging and reading others' blogs can be addicting, sure. Like Facebook or Twitter. And, sometimes it is difficult to keep it in perspective. But, one of the greatest JOYS I've had from blogging is getting to share with others in prayer. Man, there is a lot of pain out there. And, this huge blogging network provides a way to connect, to share tragedies and successes, and to intercede on behalf of others. And, that's satisfying to me - a true privilege and humbling honor. For a bit a time, I enter someone else's world and life and I experience compassion, sadness, and victory with them. And, then I come back to my world with a new lens. I can see where the doldrums of my life aren't really that bad. Or, I can grab my girls and hug them...because I DO have them in my life. And, I'm so very blessed.

Now, there have been some nights I've grieved with moms I don't even know. Like Waiting for Happy who has lost 2 sons and now has a baby daughter dealing with Dystrophic Epdermolysis Bullosa. Like the Thompsons who lost their first child during childbirth and now just lost their 5 day old son, a year later, to Trisomy 18.

And, then there are some stories out there that turn out with happier endings. Like, for sweet Harper on Kelly's Korner. Like, for the famous Stellan on My Charming Kids.

You know, for the "good" and the "bad" endings both, I have to remind myself that the morning does come and hope is renewed, whether the world defines it that way or not. Do what, you ask? God has brought to my mind numerous times when reading others' stories...Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." So, I will continue to cling to that as I share with others...their stories and my own.

Cindy and crew