Our "normal"

      It's been a while since I have written to you as an audience. I have been re-writing my book and taking some time to reflect on life. We have been busy in the Foster household this year. Kyleigh turned 5 in December. It was a wild celebration day as it was a high of 66 degrees while we played at the Little Gym. Quite different from the previous four years of ice and snow with temperatures freezing. Unfortunately she still had very few friends show up at her actual party this year and they couldn't blame it on the weather this time so I must admit I was disappointed but she didn't seem to mind, as she still smiled and had fun. That's the beauty of being a child, they don't seem to be bothered by the same things that us adults get all worked up about. In fact, she was just happy to be able to jump around to music and eat cake!
      Shortly after her birthday of course we celebrated Christmas with my family in Thomasville and then again in Lexington, SC. My niece, Amber had come in from Ohio and so we traveled to see her and it was a great visit and meal by my sis-in-law. Which, may I congratulate her on becoming a registered nurse as well - Elizabeth Kelsey-Maynard, LPN-RN -- Whoop! Whoop!! So very proud of all her hard work! (I hope I put all of the initials in there correctly, I am sure she will tell me if I didn't).
Then just a few days later, after packing like a mad woman, my church family came and moved us from our home to a 2 bedroom apartment just 10 minutes down the road.
       Yes, that is correct--I sold our home and we moved on December 28, 2013! It was totally a God thing as the house went on the market right before Halloween, went under contract November 25th and signed on January 3rd. Talk about a quick sell! We are settled now in our cute little apartment. I am happy here. In fact, it is nice to have less space to take care of, a maintenance crew to call when things break and need fixing. The girls share a rather large bedroom, they were able to keep their own beds. Both bedrooms have a walk-in closet, which for an apartment is a great accessory. There is a patio and storage area attached to my room. We also have a little sunroom off the living room that works as a play area too. It is just enough space for us. The girls were able to remain at their current schools and that was also important to me. Kaitlyn is very attached to her teachers and other staff at Pearce and they love her. Kyleigh is in preK and changing her now would be very difficult. I am still on medical leave with the state department.
         I am working on re-writing the book that I self published. I am excited about the opportunity to attend the SheSpeaks conference in July with Proverbs31 Ministries. I hope to meet with a publisher and get my name out and possibly if it is meant to be get a contract. I want to return back to the work force but I have no idea what that looks like for me right now. I do know that it doesn't look like returning to full time teaching. So until the door opens and I have a clear cut answer, I wait and I pray and I write.
        I have come off of most of my medications. I am doing very well medically speaking. I am using Essential Oils now to help manage my migraines. They are helping me tremendously as well as going to the chiropractor once a month. I believe there is a connection between your health and your spine. I also believe that we have moved away from using healing treatments of the past that were proven to work such as Essential Oils. I truly believe and I can say from experience that if Frankincense Oil was good enough for baby Jesus then it is good enough for me to use to control my migraines. Trust me when I say it along with the combination of other oils has helped keep me away from emergency rooms and pain killers since Thanksgiving! I am so grateful for learning about this natural way of treating migraines.
         Another major thing that has occurred since my last entry is that we have reached our "normal". What does that look like? What does that mean exactly? I remember hating it when people said to me back in 2011, "you will find your new normal one day". I just wanted to punch them and scream. Honestly, I wanted to say to those people, "So when you woke up today were you hoping to find a new normal?". Of course not, no one wants to find a new "normal". Re-doing life is hard and painful and for lack of a better word- it sucks! I remember sitting with a close friend from church and we tried so hard to come up with a word to describe how hard this journey was going to be and there was not a single word in the thesaurus that fit better than "sucks". I didn't want "new normal". I just wanted things to go back to how they were before May 13, 2011. I wanted my "normal". Come to find out in this journey of healing that I have been on, my life before 2011 wasn't "normal", it was far from normal and it wasn't healthy. I had to endure a lot of growing since that awful day. My children are still dealing with the after effects of that day. But the good news is we are reaching "our new normal".
        I remember the day very clear. It was January 8, 2014 and we were walking across the parking lot of the grocery store to the car. We had just returned back to the car from going inside to use the restroom and we were holding hands, interlocked, and swinging our arms back and forth as we walked. There was a slight breeze in the air and the sun was shining just so through the clouds as if the rays were wings of angels. I could almost hear singing. Right then, at that very moment a smile crept across my face and a giggle bubbled up from inside my soul to my lips and out of my mouth. My girls and I skipped to the car hand in hand as if this is what we have always done our entire lives. Just us three, together. It was NORMAL. We were Happily "even" after the storms of life had tried to take us down.
There you go--I gave you a little glimpse into my book with that last sentence. I hope you are smiling with me right now knowing that we are doing just fine.

Blessings from the Foster Girls!