I haven’t written for a full week.  I don’t think that has happened in the entire history (3 years) of my blogging.

I feel a little guilty about that, but in reality, I don’t see how things could have been any different.  It was a crazy week in preparation of an even crazier week.  Brain, body and schedule have been completely maxed out.

Until now.  I find myself sitting in PDX airport after a wonderful weekend away waiting for a plane to take me back to my home where milestones are awaiting and company will be arriving.  This is Blake’s graduation week and I can’t help but reflect and reminisce…

Blake has lived his life in three states, four cities and five houses.  As last born, those numbers are lower than the places that his sisters have lived and that Mark and I lived before any of them were born.

There are times when I wonder what it would be like if we had stayed in one place for the past nearly 28 years (our anniversary is next month).  I see friends and family who have had the same friends from kindergarten through high school, as was my experience growing up (I also have my 30 year reunion this year).  Part of me envies the deep ties and sense of history that such a life offers.  I know that things are different in each of our lives because Mark’s job has required us to move multiple times and I can find myself asking, “what if?”

But then I stop and consider all the people and opportunities that the life that God has called us to has offered…

If we had never moved when God called:

We never would have met our closest friends who live in the various cities we have occupied.

My daughter would have never met her wonderful husband.

I would never have encountered the women who have lost children or gone through the same heart surgeries as my Mitchell who “randomly” came across my path.

My children would not have had the same teachers or coaches or mentors who have helped shape them into the people they are today.

Mark and I would not have had the same “couple friends” who have done life in all its colors with us.

I may never have been a barista or a worship assistant or a medical transcriptionist or a stager.

I might never have endured the trials that led me to writing a blog and a book.

I would never have experienced the beauty of the Rocky Mountains or the intensity of the desert sun.

I wouldn’t have learned to appreciate the rain.

It was a quick weekend in Portland.  I am heading back to a busy week.  But where I am leaving and where I am going both give me the sweetest sense of God’s provision for my family over the years.  Even in the years of “famine”, He was providing in ways that would show themselves further down the road.  Every relationship, every circumstance, every opportunity and every encounter has taken us to where and who we are.

As people and experiences float in and out of my life, I am thankful that over the years, in every place that God has taken us, there have been and will be those that “stick” and profoundly affect and change and grow us.

Thank you to every single one of you, near and far, the floaters and the stickers, for letting God use you as He would in our lives. My  heart is full…