One Week at a Time...

One week ago today I was here:

Majestic cliffs. Divine hot springs. Walking sticks and exploration. Wildlife and moss and mountain passes that make you hold your breath and the smell of sweet cedar in the air.

Oh, Missoula, I love you!

But then we packed our workhorse of a van full of sunburned but happy bodies and headed back to drop our good friend, Bailey off at her new home in Billings. The time was sweet. The goodbyes sweeter with a touch of bitter, and somehow we survived the trek across the North Dakota nothing and back to our little cottage in the pines. Home.

We desperately needed the get-away, we had been made painfully aware with Matt being treated for stomach ulcers just days before leaving. Stress will do that to a person. Cause you to stop everything and re-prioritize- reset your life. But this, also, is good and necessary.

I had planned on writing about the many blessings found on our adventure to the Big Sky. I had planned on sharing how miraculous it was to have just finished my herbal remedy for Lyme Disease and, for the first time in well over a year now, to have almost no pain. I could write an entire blog post on the rejoicing over this wondrous timing, considering I'm back on another medication/remedy now and the hurt is returning. Still, a glorious week. GLORIOUS.

I had planned on putting words to seeing our Creator in Creation. I did. I do.

But then things rarely go as planned.

I got a frantic phone call from my younger sister the day after we got home. She was pregnant with twins, one of which she had just found out had died. There was already much suffering, but this was a new desperation in her voice- she was only 25 weeks along and in hard and sudden labor. "Please just pray I don't lose this baby, too."

I cried. I stayed up all night by my phone, waiting for text messages from our other sister who was with her. Yes, she needed an emergency C-section.

I have the most precious new baby niece, at 1 lb. 11 oz. She is a miracle- a fighter. I know so many who have gone through these situations, but never in my family. We're new in the NICU. And I get to be there tomorrow to hold her tiny finger.

Somewhere in the middle of these huge life moments there are still dishes to wash and garden to plan and backpacks to fill and laundry piles. The piles. And my mind is somewhere else.

I'm not sure there is any other way today. This is Life. And only one week, at that. Somehow the lows make the highs that much more profoundly special, and rejuvenate the soul just enough.

God, be enough.