Making if through the Ups and Downs

Dan and I were just talking about our wedding last night.  I love this picture from August 2009.  His Mom and Dad often said it was one of the most fun times in their lives.  Cindy was feeling good health-wise.  I remember her telling me that one of the greatest blessings in her life was seeing her son marry the person that God made for him.  Ernie was being as ornery as ever, going shot for shot of whiskey at the bar with some of Dan's groomsmen.  If you knew Ernie, you knew he gave up drinking probably 25 years before our wedding, but he just couldn't let the young guys show him up that night.

It was such a wonderful day.  Our family hadn't had anything bad happen to us yet.  Our nephew Kaden was still here, we hadn't suffered any miscarriages, we hadn't gone through the roller coaster of having a preemie, I hadn't gone through my crazy post-partum depression stage after Ida Mae was born, we hadn't seen our precious premature niece Savannah pass away just a few days after birth, and we hadn't gone through Ernie's farm accident and seeing Cindy's disease progress to what it is today.

But there are good things that have happened since our wedding too.  We've had some nice black calves to sell, good crops, and pretty decent prices most years.  I had a job in crop insurance for 6 years and now have truly found a career in what I'm meant to do.  We are missing some people in this picture too.  Two more beautiful nieces (Abi and Lily), another nephew (Kaleb), and our two blondies (Lorena and Ida Mae) have been born since our wedding day.

We all went to visit Cindy today and we had some good laughs and she shared her normal words of wisdom with us.  She's got a lot of faith, faith I wish I had now.  Life has ups and downs.  Sometimes you have to get through the bad to get to the good.  Every family goes through these things, we've just had our share recently.  I know there are good days ahead though.  Please continuing praying for Cindy's health and strength for our family. ~ Lydia