This beautiful exchange

It’s been almost four years since I first moved away. I had just gone through one of the most devastating experiences of my life and was still aching from open wounds. I didn’t know it then, but moving away was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Leaving was so hard, but probably very necessary as it allowed me to experience new things in life and in myself. For the last few years while I have been away, I have been working on healing wounds and learning how to rebuild my life.

Now, I am back. But, I am returning as a very different person. I’m a wife. I’m a mother. I have a more firm, healthy view of what I believe about God and how we relate to Him.  I have a bigger view of the world around me and the part I want to play in it. I have a deeper love for my friends and family, and a much greater understanding of God’s provision.

The challenge, now, is to figure out how to take all that I have become and all that I have learned and make it fit into a pattern that is used to the “old” me. Tony and I have talked over the past few days about making sure that we stay true to who we are as a couple now that we are back in a place that has only known us as individuals. We have dreams and plans that are different than when we were here before. I just hope that in the midst of all of this familiarity, we don’t lose sight of all that we’ve learned in the last three years and where we hope to be in the next three.