June of last year looked so different.
At exactly this time in 2017, we had saved enough money to buy a second house to renovate as an investment property, I had settled into the routine of being a stay at home mom, and I felt like I had a good handle on things.
Little did I know that the next 12 months would be the hardest of my life.
To save you from the longest post ever, I'll sum up some things.
June of 2017 thrust me into a position of leadership and learning that I never expected: I became a leader of our church. For those who have never lead in such a position will never fully understand the gravity of that statement. It came with so many tears and uncertainty.
In the summer of 2017 I spent a large portion of my time and energy learning how to be a construction site manager. Yes, you heard me right. I suddenly found myself overseeing our church project of making a place for ourselves. To say this was stressful is an understatement. I learned so many things the hard way.
Let me remind you that during this time, we were paying two mortgages and had an empty house waiting to be fixed which my parents were going to move into as a joint investment.
Then came September ... which brought a pregnancy.
Pregnancy for me is like a judge sentencing me to 9 months of torture. I know so many have it worse, and many wish they could experience it. But that doesn't stop the fact that I'm sick for most of it.
This fact made the winter long and hard, combined with the fact that Winter of 2017/2018 was, in fact, long and hard.
With a baby on the way, and a steady hand on church leadership, the plan was to focus our attention onto that empty house.
Or so we thought.
Come New Year's 2018 - Eric literally tore his muscle off. He lifted an item at work and tore the bicep tendon off the bone. This injury required surgery and months of physiotherapy. Needless to say this threw a wrench in the plans yet again.
When finally cleared for light duty in May of 2018, I had become so gigantically pregnant that I was of no use to him on the construction front. He spent his time working on the very few things he could do without ruining his arm for good.
That brings us to June of 2018. After such a long and trying time, a ray of sunshine came into our world on June 10th. Little did we know how much love we had in our hearts to give - that after such storms comes a rainbow.
And because God has a sense of humor, he placed a little cherry on top, just to make sure I got the picture and maybe learnt the lesson.
Last night, we literally faced a storm unlike anything I have ever experienced. It started as something kind of beautiful and exciting but suddenly turned into something terrifying and overhwhelming. As it raged on, and we stared out the window watching things get destroyed, I realized there was nothing I could do. All of it was in the hands of the creator.
This evening we walked around looking at the damage, and I couldn't help but thank God that he's still God in the storms.
