Spring is here, finally, after Winter seemed to drag on forever!  With Spring comes a renewed love for life and nature.  Pretty shades of green begins to emerge on plants that were dormant during the cold months.  New buds appear on flowers, and we pray that there’s no “cold snap” before Easter that will kill the new life that has been breathed into these flowering plants.

It’s a time for new beginnings!

In this past month since I’ve written, my mom has definitely had a new beginning.  She had severe back pain for over a year and a half due to pinched nerves in her spine.  Two weeks after surgery, she was finally released from the hospital after several different complications that occurred.  The surgery on her back was a success, and she was not in any pain with that, thankfully.  It was other matters that prolonged her hospital stay.  She ended up going home with physical therapy on order and a variety of other things to deal with.  After using the walker for a good while, she then progressed to the point where she only needed a cane.  Imagine my delight when my parents drove up to my house last Saturday.  This was the first time she felt like going any where after six weeks.  The door sprung open, and my mother proceeded to get out of the vehicle, walk to the edge of the steps and then start climbing the nine steps in order to make it inside of my house.  It did my heart so much good to see her getting around like that!

There has been a new beginning taking place in my life as well.  We moved!  After 25 years of living in the same place, we decided it was time for a change.  My husband actually called it a “fresh start” and a “new beginning” for us.  A lot of people wait until they retire to go on trips or buy that vacation house.  Sadly, too many fall ill right after retirement and are not able to enjoy the fruits of their labor after all of those years of working.  So, we decided to go for it now and enjoy life.  You can’t take it with you, that’s for sure, so you might as well enjoy while you’re alive.

We moved on the complete opposite side of town and have more acreage now for us to ride our horses on!  There’s a pond for us to enjoy fishing in as a family, and we will still be able to enjoy Summertime in our pool.  While we didn’t “need” this house or any of the extras that came with it, it was something we felt we wanted to do as a family.  My youngest daughter fell in love with the house when she first saw it, and for a month after, she asked every single day, “Have you heard anything on the house?”  She was so anxious to finally move in that when we did, she would not leave the house for the entire first weekend we were there!  She honestly LOVES the new house, and honestly, I am quite fond of it myself!  It’s more than I could have ever imagined.  After all of the years of my husband being so humble and not wanting to be too “showy,” we are now enjoying the hard work both of us have put in for all of these years.

My oldest daughter is now living in my old house.  It was full of so many memories of my children growing up that it was hard to even think of selling it!  Every corner had a special memory!  I’ll never forget the time my oldest daughter was in her little walker.  She was so cute and looked as innocent as ever, until she looked right at me and heard me say, “No … don’t you do that …” and disregarded everything I just said as she snatched the peace lily leaves and ran down the hall as fast as she could in that walker!  She left a trail of dirt behind her as she had a death grip on that peace lily.  I can laugh about it now!  But it’s moments like those that are forever etched in my memory.  How could I possibly sell that house?  It’s the house that both of my babies grew up in.  It was also the same home that my niece knew throughout her childhood when I was allowed to have her visit with us.  I rocked all three babies in my wooden rocking chair in the living room as I patted their little diapered bottoms while singing “Jesus Loves Me.”   My oldest daughter teases me now that my niece is expecting a baby of her own.  My daughter mimics me rocking and humming or either singing my special tune that I sang with all three of them.

Memories!!

I could not let them go.  So the house had to stay, and my heart is so full knowing that my daughter will live in this house where she will make memories of her very own there.  (She and her boyfriend are talking about future plans to marry, and my heart leaps and does flips over this!)  And if she ever tires of calling this “home,” then my youngest daughter has already said she wishes to live there one day, too.  How wonderful to know that this house full of memories will remain in our family for years and years to come!

My niece will be 33 weeks pregnant this weekend, and we’re having a baby shower for her!  Little Oliver will be here in just a few short weeks.  I’ll actually be surprised if she goes to her due date of May 12th.  We’re excited, yet nervous, but we’re expecting great things.  God is so good … and we know that no matter what we will face with this special needs child, HE will see us through it all!

Yes, new beginnings … for everyone!