My Story

I love hearing people’s stories and how they overcome things and make it through in the end. I want to share a little bit of my current story.

My husband graduated from school a year and a half ago and we had to make some big decisions about where to live and what job to take etc. It was pretty stressful. After a lot of prayer and weighing pros and cons we decided to take a job in Idaho. This was far from our families and in a town that neither of us had been to before. And through some crazy, but miraculous circumstances we found an apartment to move into last minute (sometime I’ll share that story!).

We made the big move to Idaho and started settling into our new life here. It has been challenging! Our apartment is old and has some interesting and less than desirable quirks. We live in a small town with few neighbors close by (in fact I hardly ever see any other human life unless I drive into town).We had previously lived in such a fun area and we had SO many friends close by and now we had no one. The only other life around us is horses. And I love horses, but they don’t exactly fill my social needs:). I didn’t know a single person in the area and I’ve never felt so incredibly alone. Plus I was pregnant at that time and I was SO SICK!

Oh, and did I mention that our apartment had mice? Yeah. That was the cherry on top. Lots of mice. Luckily they have never come into our actual living area, they’ve just been in the walls, ceilings and storage room. But that was enough to really throw me for a loop.

I’m not one to give up and I’ve made it through hard things before and I knew I could do it again. In fact, I’ve moved TONS of times growing up and I loved it. But for some reason moving as an adult (pregnant!) with 2 little kids is much less fun:). Anyway, needless to say I had a LOT of hard days following that move.

I tried to get my sick, pregnant self out of the house with my kiddos and go to parks a couple times a week and explore our new little town. And I slowly came to find things to love about our new situation.

Fast forward a year and a half…I’ve since had my baby and we’ve made friends here and I know the town really well now. Things have gotten MUCH better. But it is still very challenging to be a mom of 3 little kids who are all home with me all day, living far away from our families, and living in a place where I feel so alone! I feel like through this experience and time in my life I’ve really had to dig deep to keep myself grounded and happy and it is a struggle that I have to deal with every day.

I am so grateful for my trials and challenges that I’ve this last little while though because my testimony has never been stronger as I’ve had to really depend on it and my knowledge of Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father to get me through. I’ve learned that I have to put that first in my life to get through each day. That’s what centers me and keeps me balanced.

I’ve also had to dig deep to find the things that make me, me. And the things that make me feel happy and like I’m fulfilling my purpose in life. I feel like as a mom of little kids that your identity can easily get lost with all the chaos. It’s so important to spend time on yourself (within reason of course!) and remember the things you love doing and then keep doing them! I also started spending time each day reading and working on self-development and that has also helped so much. I love learning from other people and changing myself for the better.

So basically that’s why I’m writing this blog. I just want to share all the things I’m learning that have really helped me get through challenging times. I hope to be able to look back on my life and really see that my trials have made me better and not bitter:) And that they have shaped me and changed my HEART into the person that I am supposed to be. 🙂

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. -Marianne Williamson