New Life - b/c we have lots of living to do!

As most of you know, this has been a year of transition and heartache for our family. We have faced obstacles that seemed too costly, too devastating, and too challenging at the time. Only months later would we be able to see how God's hand directed during the most difficult days of our lives so far. We sold our home in Texas, left our jobs, said goodbye to precious friends and moved. Fortunately, we were all able to move... HOME. There is something so comforting in that word... HOME.

For the past nine months, Austin and I have been living with my parents as James tied up loose ends in Texas. January looked like a fresh start and a new opportunity to live together in a new place... and then we received word of my Dad's diagnosis. Cancer.

The word Cancer changes your life. The priorities of our family were brought to light as James and I discussed the best living options of the new year. Austin and I would remain with my parents - helping in any possible way on the home front while my mom and dad lived at the hospital for months at a time.

On Good Friday my Dad received great news - he was dismissed from the bone marrow unit of Moffitt Cancer Institute and told to go HOME! Once again, there is something so healing about this place - this place we all call home.

The Easter weekend brought ideas of the resurrection and redemption to greater understanding in all of our hearts and lives this year. Dad's bone marrow transplant gave him new life. Redemption was also taking place among our immediate family of three. It is time to start fresh - to start anew. To bring new life into that which was thought dead.

The practical needs of my family, Dad's health and his weak immune system, prompted discussions of moving for the little one and me. We will continue to live in two places. We are lucky in this sense. Austin and I have two places to call HOME. To honor our first weekend "living" in Gator country, however, we celebrated. We took Austin to his very first Gator game (the Orange and Blue Game) and we had a swim party with our precious friends.

I look forward to all the new life that the future holds for all of our family.


Buying tickets for the Orange and Blue Game


Austin at his first Gator game. (AJ covers his ears at any loud sound, so we decided it is best for him to use earplugs!)


Our precious new friends over to swim


This weekend, everyone was well enough for us to visit Dad! Austin was able to be near Grandpa for the first time without my dad having to wear a mask!