1 Year Cancer-Anniversary

I'm often amazed at how a length of time can pass and it seems like an eternity ago and yesterday all at the same time. One year ago today, I had surgery for thyroid cancer. I had no idea then what the future would hold. I was terrified of surgery itself and perhaps even more so of cancer. I saw so much goodness in the world through people caring for me. I had friends who brought food, came and cleaned, folded our laundry, kept me company while I had to just sit! I even had a friend who came and helped me squeeze down and drain my tube -- now that's a real friend!

A year later, I feel like I'm mostly recovered. Though I thought it was almost impossible then, I feel like I've regained my strength. Nicholas and I were just reflecting on my time in the hospital having to have help to sit up. How I got stars on my white-board for walking 10feet down the hall...two stars if I sat down at 10feet and then was able to walk back to my room! Laugh! Amazing how God created our bodies to heal themselves and recover. In the past year we've rehabbed two houses, sold one and rented one. I hung (with a little help) over 90 sheets of sheetrock. We've made some big changes, including Nicholas quitting his day job to work full-time with me on rentals. We've made an intentional step towards taking nights and weekends off and enjoying life because you just never know what's ahead. We're making plans for 2017, which include more projects balanced out with more fun and rest.

It's Christmas time now and as we're preparing for this season, I'm grateful. I'm grateful to be here, enjoying our girls, this life that we've been given. Grateful for God's provision and resting in the fact that he knows every single day we will live before we were even born. I find solace and peace in that truth. Have a very Merry Christmas.

~Angie

Living with Grace

Grace means getting something you do not deserve. 

Grace is a concept I didn't grow up with, yet something I'm trying desperately to teach our daughters. Something I long to understand and to live. I ordered a 3-pack book set on mothering probably a year ago. Included in the set was a book called, "Grace Based Parenting." I wish I could tell you more about the book but I've honestly not read it in it's entirety, yet. What I did read triggered the desire within me to learn and teach grace. 

Having grown up in a family where you built your worth by working hard, grace is somewhat of a foreign language. I grew up attending church, hearing the word "grace" but never really understanding or feeling it. As I've fumbled through what it looks like to live with grace, I have noticed that grace stands out. It's unexpected and shocking to be the recipient of something you don't deserve and haven't earned. I grew up thinking something like that was cheating, slacking, being lazy. To lower yourself to the level of accepting something that you didn't work for or earn, was embarrassing. 

It makes me think of little children and how easy it is to have grace with babies and toddlers. It's easy to hug them and kiss them, even though they do not express the desire for your affection or give the same in return. It's so simple to shower them with unearned joys; books and toys, time and attention. I think of how much harder it becomes (at least for me) as they get older and we balance the concepts of grace with responsibility, consequences, and work ethic. 

When I think of the life Jesus lived here on Earth, I think of the grace he lived. I think of the miracles he performed for everyday, undeserving people. I think of the provisions he gave to those who had need. All grace. When I look at the amount of time Jesus spent showing grace compared to having good work ethic, I think overwhelmingly is his example of grace. Since he was pretty intentional about his time on Earth, I kinda think it was on purpose. 

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

May we all live life with more grace.
~Angie