Picture Perfect

When people look at my life they think, "Wow, she's got it made!" At least that is what I think they think. I have a wonderful husband that is very talented, well spoken, and inspiring to be around. We have a great, fun, and exciting marriage. I have two beautiful girls that are, for the most part, well behaved. (unless they are at home, of course) I have another healthy baby on the way. We have a cute (and annoying) dog. Nice place to live. Great family. Love life. Love God. We are the perfect family, right?

I have always said that you never judge a woman's pregnant belly because you never know what she went through to get that perfectly round belly. It is the same with each others lives. We can't judge what we think is the perfect family, first of all because nothing is ever perfect. What you don't see is that Bryan and I have struggled in our marriage in very real and devastating ways a couple years ago. What you don't see is the heart break of losing 3 special babies. What you don't see is the financial bottom we got to 4 years ago. You don't see the scares of losing jobs and literally eating Ramon noodles for dinner for weeks at a time. You don't see the time when we were on food stamps because we knew no other way to feed our newborn baby, Grace. The work, the sweat, the chaos, and the heartbreak that has gone into the last 7 years is something that if you asked me, "Would you do it all over again?" I would tell you for absolute sure, "YES!" I would go through it all.

The family you see now, the love that my husband and I have, the perfect little girls, the little round belly that is starting to form on me comes from one place. Every good thing in our life comes from a place that we would never know if it had not been for those deep, dark vallies we encountered a long our journey. It is our faith, our trust, our obedience to God that we find ourselves living on the mountain. Not to say that our life is in any way perfect. And if tomorrow we hit a deep, dark valley again we will lift our heads up to the sky and know where our help comes from. We will know that God has never left us yet, and he sure doesn't plan on starting now!

There is something profound about being happy for those who are being blessed when you find yourself in the valley. Just like there is something profound while standing on the mountain and reaching down to help those in the valley.