My Therapy

There have been many times in my life when I have tried to do things in my own strength and my own abilities. I have relied on my own thinking and on my own strategies because I am a woman who likes to have a plan. In my mind, any successful plan has to make sense on paper. That’s what I used to think for a very long time. Can anyone else relate? Before I began to pursue an intimate relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ, there were very few things that I achieved—with a plan—that brought me true satisfaction. Once I achieved one thing, I was quickly looking for the next thing to do. Once I became a young adult, I tried to remain focused on my plan for my life. In the end, my life ended up being the complete opposite of what I envisioned it to be. First:  I grew up never wanting to get married or have any children. Reality : I met my husband at the age of 17. We were married at 20, and we had 4 kids before the age of 30.  Second:  I wanted to work my way up the cor

We were able to share a moment together at our father's grave. Father’s Day has just about passed. I had a wonderful day sharing it with my Daddy and my husband and my loved ones. However, there is one more person who was in my heart and in my thoughts throughout the day. That person was my biological father. We just visited Chicago last week. It was a wonderful experience to visit so many family members from my Mom’s side of the family. However, we also had the privilege of meeting family members from my father’s side of the family. These were family members whom I had never met. I am the daughter of a man who is no longer with us. He passed away when I was fifteen years old. I had never met this man. He abandoned us—my mom and three kids—when I was a very young child.  We were truly blessed when God allowed us to be raised by the only man we have ever known as Dad. He accepted my mom with three children and he proudly raised us as his own. For that we will forever

In case you didn't already know, we are finally home again. That's right. Home sweet home!!!  We are so thankful to God! We are beyond grateful for what He has done through this hurricane within our family. He truly is faithful! It has been a little over one month since we've been home--still trying to find the right pieces of furniture, trying to organize, gradually moving stuff back home, still cleaning and trashing things that need to be trashed. This has definitely been a long and grueling process. Yet, it has blessed us in more ways than we can count.  I recently purchased some IKEA furniture, for the first time ever. I figured it was a smart and budget-friendly option for the kids rooms. Besides, I really like the look of some of the furniture pieces so I decided to order the furniture, once I had discussed it with my husband. Please keep in mind that I do have my own drill and am familiar with using basic tools, except for a hammer. I just figured--how

Since Hurricane Harvey entered our lives, leaving a lasting impact on our family, I have had a lot of time to think and meditate while spending my quiet moments with God. My family and I have been able to feel His presence and His peace and provision throughout all that has happened.  It has now been two weeks since my last post. It has been two weeks since I walked into my home which was filled with about a foot of water.  It has been two weeks since my heart completely broke as I saw all our belongings floating around our house.  At that time, the floodwater was continuing to rise in our home, as the rain had not ceased and would continue to come down heavily for at least one more full day. Eventually the water level inside our house would reach 23 inches and the water level outside our home would reach 42 inches. We evacuated our home on Sunday. We went back on Monday to retrieve some items. We would not be back inside our home until Wednesday afternoon, after walking through

Last week as I was doing my usual bi-weekly huge grocery haul, I first found out about a hurricane named Harvey coming to our area. I don't watch the news or much TV, and I hadn't heard anything on the radio about this potential hurricane. The next day I had to go buy water and found it to be quite a challenging task. Needless to say, I started to look up this potential hurricane, which was supposedly forecast to bring a lot of rain to our area. I was still a little unsure whether or not to believe the hype of the media. Friday morning I found myself going to the grocery store early in the morning to find some canned goods and lunch meats to help us survive a few days without electricity. Never did I imagine the devastation that I was about to experience alongside my wonderful family.  When we first moved into our home in 2014 it was mandatory to purchase flood insurance for our home. Though we lived near a creek, our house was built on a higher foundation so floodin