C'est la vie ...That's Life

Where are all my movie lovers? I am a move lover, y'all. I watch all kinds....old ones, new ones, and ones that I have seen hundreds of times. I think I passed this trait on to my son, my sailor. He is 22 now and it y'all it seems like yesterday he was just learning to walk. Now he is somewhere across the sea loving life and living his dream. He still loves movies and when he comes home on leave we usually have one day where lots of coffee is consumed is Netflix is running hot! 

If you looked at him or at our family, you would say we have a good life. We do....most days 😊I'm just like you. Life goes up and down. There are things I want to change. There are things I think are good. Things I want to keep.Sometimes during moments of little victories I think life is good. I never want this to change. Then, Wham! Out of the blue everything changes and I think this is horrible. Things need to change. 

Yesterday I posted a quote from one of my favorite movies. It  is from Tombstone when Doc Holliday says  "There is no normal life Wyatt, it's just life, now get on with it."

So many times we get caught up in thinking and then overthinking about our life being good or bad. What are we measuring our life against? Our neighbor? A movie? Our family members?  Who is telling us what is good or bad? Now I'm not referring to lives of abuse or neglect. If you are in that situation, my heart goes out to you and I urge you to seek help.  I am talking about our day to day lives.

You know that life, right? The one where get up, sleepy and yawning, stumbling toward the coffee pot. Waiting on that first sip to revive us and get us ready to face the day. The life where we go to our jobs or get ready to homeschool our kids and think we can't take one more minute of this mundane existence. It's the life where we come home every night, take the kids to their activities, get our dinner on the table (or in front of the TV), and go to bed at a set time to wake up and do it all again the next day.

We commiserate with our co-workers, family, and anyone else who will listen how bad it is that we have XYZ commitment to fulfill or how life is awful because we lived above our means yet one more time and we are suffering the consequences. We believe that life is bad. It is bad that we don't have this or the newest that. It's bad because the kids are sick, your spouse is sick, and two co-workers just called in sick for the rest of the week. We think has just fallen apart. This must be a bad life right?

We put these thoughts on ourselves. We ponder and give lots of time to making life better. A better job, a better __________ (fill in the blank). It causes so much stress and anxiety. We feel like we are in a constant mode of striving. It leaves us emotionally, mentally, and spiritually spent.

What does the scripture say? Did Jesus promise us a life of ease? A life without trials or struggles? He did not. He did promise that He would stay by our side, walk with us through those endless piles of laundry and ride with us as we taxi our kids to the latest sport of "interest." He said He would stay with you right through the messiest of days, or when your dog is sick with a terrible stomach thing-y and there is evidence of this on the carpet. 

He is not standing above saying, " oh look at Regina down there, I hope she drinks her second cup of coffee or she is going to just have an awful day." No my friend. He stands right beside me and says "that's it, you can make it, this is hard but I'm here." He will cheer me on everytime through the good, the bad, and the insane. He has my back.

Today let's just live free. Embrace the life we have. Work for something better if you want but know that life is just life and He loves you no matter what.

Walking this journey with you,
Regina 💖

And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age
Matthew 28:20b

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Well guys, lots of changes going on in this Momma's world. I'm sure for many of you too, as we move toward high school graduations for some.

Hank has always wanted to be a pilot. Then when he was just a little boy, his eyesight was damaged through an illness with Heamophilus Influenza type B. He was in the hospital about two weeks. We lived in KS at the time, so it was long days and longer nights away from our family and all that we knew. This illness was in his bloodstream and we were told that it would cause organ system failure which would lead to death or  mental retardation. Thankfully, none of that happened. What we were not told is that it could cause deafness and blindness.

He wasn't blind but he was in glasses by age 4 with his eyesight changing rapidly.

Move ahead to Hank in elementary school. Something was just not right. I knew...it seemed we all knew it,  but the school. Finally in 5th grade he had a hearing screen and we found out that he needed hearing aids. We asked the school to keep him in 5th grade to give him a chance to adjust to the aids and to get a better foundation for reading and math before plunging straight into middle school.

They did not see it that way....

That was  the start of our homeschool journey.

I cannot believe that we are finishing that journey in about 3 and a half months!

His eyes have now stablilized. His hearing he believed was healed several years ago at a conference we were at back at our home church in Cabot.

He found out he can be a pilot if he meets the vision requirement with his glasses. He has decided to go for it......in Tulsa.

He sat down with me last night and we started all the paperwork for graduation, another run at the ACT, and to gather more info from his top three schools of choice.

Y'all, it was all I could do not to turn into a blubbering mess. I have feelings of pride for my boy that we were told would not succeed in school. In fact his 4th grade teacher told us he had ADD, Dyslexia, Aspergers, and a host of other things that were not true. We know they were not true because he had to be tested for all of that due to her recommendations. The boy had absolutely nothing wrong but hearing loss. She also told me it was because his Dad and I, my first husband, were divorced....Lie! Girlfriends, let that be a lesson to you. The enemy wants to destroy you and your family. If he can just get a toe hold on your self esteem, he will do it! Guard against any negativity like that toward you or your family. That was a lie and I knew it, but if I had let it sink in and dwelt on it.....Hank's future, and mine, may have looked very different.

It's been a hard road for him. Due to the hearing impairment we were behind the 8 ball when we started homeschooling. He made up ground quickly. He wanted to learn. Was it easy? No way....there was a lot of tears and a even more prayer. I will confess that somedays I just didn't know what to do to help him learn. I wanted to throw my hands up. He probably did too. But, we made it. We worked together and figured out how he learned the best and just went for it! I am so glad God has bountiful grace and mercy, because Lord knows, He had to cover me a multitude of times over.

Now here we are. He was given hope again when he saw that he had a chance to go for his pilots license. Not only that, he has a couple of good back up plans if he still can't pass the vision tests. He said, "Mom, I am not going to think about failing. I am just going to say, When I become a pilot. It worked for Donald Trump, he said, When he becomes president, he never said if...." so there is one positive for DJT...he has influenced my son to take a positive approach.

Y'all, my boy with his big ol'servants heart, is going out into this world that is cruel and unforgiving. I don't know if I can stand it. I know that with this, just like everything else that has happened in my life, good and bad, God will be there to give me strength when I have none, His spirit will encourage me, and with Him beside me and Frank on the other side....we will see this boy through this season.

I'm exctied for his future, but just know that I will be standing there from the sidelines with a proud heart and misty eyes.

It's all part of the journey, Regina