It's been one thing after another for me, pain mixed with blessings. As an only child to a single immigrant parent with health issues, I had to grow up quickly! I worked hard for my bachelors degree and became a Registered Nurse- ensuring I could always take care of myself and family. I then worked many years in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a pretty demanding calling on my body and mind.

Eventually I got married (LOVE him), and we had a miscarriage with our first pregnancy. So awful. Our second pregnancy, fetal demise and a stillborn delivery. I was so traumatized and broken. Third pregnancy, healthy fun loving girl, thank you Lord. Fourth pregnancy, baby boy with a congenital heart defect, emergent medical procedures, and open heart surgery. We lived a month and a half in the cardiac ICU, and he endured many life threatening complications. Traumatizing again, but he made it through. Such a warrior! But the stressed continued, and I got only marginal sleep for 2 years with his ongoing medical care.

DURING all of this, we bought a home, gutted, and completely renovated it over a year. I worked 3 jobs to help pay 2 mortgages. When it was almost complete, we moved in, and 4 days later a pipe malfunctioned and flooded everything. So, a second renovation happened over another year, while we lived in it, much ripped out again and redone. While baby boy recovered in the ICU after his heart surgery, ANOTHER pipe malfunctioned, flooding our home AGAIN, for the second time. I had to bring my sick newborn home to chaos. Now, we're living through our 3rd, our THIRD, renovation. All of this was so unsafe and incredibly stressful with small children, desperately wanting a quiet safe retreat. Instead, we got a construction zone with concrete dusty floors, missing cabinets, washing dishes in bathrooms, all confined to one room, and boxes and tools everywhere.

In addition, I help with on-going medical care for 2 adult family members, besides myself and the kids. One medical emergency and intervention after another. With that, I also have to constantly reinforce healthy boundaries for good relationships. Thankful to be able to support and love, but it is definitely work.

To add, I also homeschool my 2 kids and solo parent most days while hubs works late, often. We have no siblings to help us out, and hub's family lives out of town. It's all on us. So thankful for my church community that has been able to step in from time to time, but doing this on my own has been haaard.

Many BEAUTIFUL things to be thankful for, all intertwined with difficulty, exhaustion, stress, and a roller coster of emotions. All this to say, I probably can relate to some of YOUR feelings of overwhelm and hardship! And I want to show you the way to help you get through it too!