On Perfectionism, Platitudes, and Prettiness.

Hello blog world!

I realize that I totally left you hanging on the "Italy PDA" story, and I'm sorry about that! I Promise to finish it, and the ending really is worth coming back for!

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So much has happened and continues to happen here in our little corner of the world, and I seem to continually find myself in the Place of having too much to say and being overwhelmed by all that I have failed to blog and then deciding to move forward by Posting . . . nothing! (This is not a new Problem for me, and it stems from my arch-nemesis: Perfectionism)

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Life is hard, and the last six months have been very tough for our little family. I feel like we're finally coming out of the fog, but it's a Process. I don't mean to be cryptic, but there are still a lot of things that have gone on that are really hard to Put into words. Maybe I will at some Point. Suffice it to say we would definitely appreciate your Prayers! We are Physically healthy and our God is the great Provider, but life has a way of beating us up.

If you are the Praying kind, here are a couple of other things to add to your list:

~ My best friend's little boy, who was born with Cystic Fibrosis, was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma this week. Read their story here. Please Pray for Logan, his family, and his medical team as they move forward into treatment. If you'd like to do something tangible to reach out to this family, there is a GoFundMe here:

~ My brother-in-law's mother Passed away yesterday. Please Pray for Jesse, my sister (his wife) Kindra, and Jesse's family as they grieve this loss.

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There's something about hearing a bunch of Platitudes that makes life's hard things feel harder. Well, if not harder, they add an edge of annoyance to an already difficult situation. In all of these Painful things, I find myself at a loss for words, and I Pray that I don't fall into the fear Place. The Place where we're so afraid of saying the wrong thing that we say the worn-out thing. The thing that has been said so many times that no matter how well-meant, it grates.

What is the remedy to this fear Place? I think it is to be brave. Brave enough to say hard things, or nothing at all. Brave enough to just hold on to each other in the midst of the storm that threatens to tear you apart. Brave enough to resist the temptation to lean on the tired, Predictable Platitude that holds no true comfort, but lets you feel like you're "off the hook." Brave enough to go to the empathy Place. The Place that truly feels another's Pain.

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On a slightly different note, we now have not only one but two houses on the market! That's right! Our house in Iowa has been without a rental tenant since November 15th of 2013, and on the market since January. Since the market in Florida seems to be hotter than Iowa, we made the tough decision to list this house on Wednesday. We anticipate that the Florida house will sell more quickly, and when it does we will make our way to Iowa to fill the empty house with our furniture in the hopes that a "staged" home will be Prettier and will sell more easily than an empty one.

After that, we don't really know what comes next, but we are confident that God's Plan and timing are Perfect, and He always knows what He's doing! (And that's no Platitude!)

And now for some Prettiness to end this not-so-Pretty post :)

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Thanks for reading, and thanks for praying!