A new start

I have been thinking about starting up this blog again, if only for myself.  I enjoy looking back at what my family was doing, thinking and becoming in years past.  I like to see the pictures and laugh at silly stories that would have been forgotten had I not written them down.

But our lives changed so quickly, so abruptly and I just didn't know how to process that on this blog.  I kept on writing, for sure, filling several journals with my private thoughts and prayers and story.  But I just couldn't do it on here.

Has it been almost five years?  Yes, it has.  In two months I will be a five year cancer survivor.
That doesn't excite me as much as many think it would, due to the nature of the kind of breast cancer that I have.  Five years is really meaningless for my survival rate, sadly.  But, five years has removed me from the anguish that I felt when that diagnosis came to me.  I have grown in so many ways (and not just in girth ha-ha-ha!) and don't want to hide this part of my life.  For better, and for worse, living with cancer has shaped me, and Joel and our children.

I changed my tag line, what this blog is all about.  Sure, it is still about a large christian family, growing together.  But more so than ever, it is about God's mercy and grace and our total reliance on Him for our every need.  It is about Christ's goodness to me, His faithfulness and His plan for the lives of Joel, my nine children, and myself.

Here's to a new start.