Tag Archives: perseverance

Transplanted

The first 19 years of my life, I lived in the same house with my parents and my sister. Little did I know when I moved out of that house at the age of 19, I would move approximately 23 times over the course of the next 35 years. At first I said, “moving is fun.” I could say this when all of my earthly belongings fit into the box of my fiancé’s jacked-up pickup truck. By the time we added the belongings of two children, I began to declare, “I don’t like to move. I like change; however, the moving thing has gotten old.”

One might ask, “so why did you keep moving if you don’t like to move?” That would be a good; and fair, question. One that I can answer honestly. The first dozen or so moves were situational. Our situations warranted a change of location. Some of the reasons for our moves were: a house fire, a foreclosure, frozen pipes in our rental while I was pregnant with one baby and a had toddler in tow. Some moves were temporary in nature. We found ourselves staying with my in-laws for a couple short periods as we waited to move into a more ‘permanent’ place. We also utilized a camper a couple of times in transition from one place to another. That’s an experience all its own.

Since coming into a relationship with Jesus at the age of 28, I believe God has directed the majority of our moves. Even though it has been hard at times to pack up all of our belongings, do all the things associated with a move, and get adjusted in our new locations, each place has added to who I am today. Each living space has added another layer of strength, knowledge, and perseverance I didn’t have before. Many experiences in these locations were so taxing that I was tempted to give up. I would pray for God to remove the obstacles. He usually didn’t. One thing I have learned is sometimes He allows the obstacles to remain so my character, strength, and perseverance can grow. I think my ability to be more patient has grown as well.

We have battled basement mold, bedbugs, fleas, Japanese Knotweed, putting a doublewide on fresh property, two foreclosures, owning/managing a family restaurant, being landlords, and running a bed & breakfast. Thank God this wasn’t all at the same time. The restaurant, being landlords, and running a B & B were all at the same time; the rest was fortunately spaced out some.

The point in reminiscing over all of my family’s moves is what caught my attention some weeks ago. While looking at a tall mullein plant at a campground, it occurred to me how taking certain plants from one location to another can sometimes encourage them to grow better than they had before. Conversely, the opposite can be true as well. Maybe they prefer more shade and their original location placed them in all day long direct sunlight. It may also be the original location was a crowded flower bed that stifled growth of the plant. There can be a multitude of reasons for whether a plant grows well and thrives in any given location. In my contemplation of the mullein plant, it occurred to me how the same can be said for people; specifically myself.

Some places we have lived, I noticed how I grew in my character, my faith, or other areas. Other places, I felt stifled and maybe a little stagnant. However, I have also realized recently that even in the places and spaces where I thought there’s not been any growth, there actually was. Or, maybe they were just rest spots where I could store some energy for the next part of the journey. In any case, moving many times to different areas; and sometimes back to well known areas, has fostered in me the ability to transition well and make new friends better and easier than I could as I was growing up. If I had it to do over again, would I want to move so many times? Nope. I wouldn’t. But maybe it’s just what God had planned for me to be shaped into who He planned me to be all along.

Transplanting people or plants can equal a stronger root system. It can also stifle growth if the new location isn’t conducive for that individual person or plant. Or maybe; as I have learned with knotweed, there really is growth, you just can’t see it because it’s below the surface. I have grown in perseverance, character, strength, faith, wellness, and I know a multitude of others ways through the many moves/transplants and transitions. In the end, I don’t know if I would change much about our moves. Other details, I’m sure.

#TransplantGrowth

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Am I Stronger or Melted Butter?

That probably seems like a strange title; however, by the end of the story you will totally get it. In April, my wonderful daughter and I went on a girl’s weekend trip to North Carolina to visit a great friend of mine and her other mom (teehee). This doesn’t seem like a big deal to most people but it is to me because this was the first vacation that I have taken without my hubby since we started dating 31 years ago. I will give you a little background so that this makes a little more sense. I prefer to ride in the passenger seat and not drive. I don’t see well in the dark, especially if it’s raining; and I am usually pretty fearful when driving through mountainous terrain and over large bridges. I am pretty much a chicken and the amazing thing is that I am not as fearful now as I once was; thanks to the Lord helping me to overcome many of my fears.

Anyhow, 13 days before we were set to drive out of our driveway; North Carolina bound, my wonderful daughter suffered a mild to moderate concussion and was pretty limited to what she could do; this included driving. This would mean that I would be doing most of the driving. I decided to just deal with it and it would be fine. I believe that it was God that put my mind in a tunnel and I didn’t even think about the states that we would be traveling through or the terrain that we; with me driving, would travel. We took off on a Thursday evening at 7:00 PM and were excited to get to our destination; hopefully by 9:00 Friday morning. We were doing great until we hit heavy rain in Indiana and darkness set in. I remained calm and kept moving while my sweet girl napped off and on; which she needed to do for her pretty little head to heal from the concussion. All was going ‘okay’ after I adjusted my speed to run a little slower; that is until we were in Ohio, just outside of Lima. The not-so-main road that the GPS took us down was beyond scary. Did I mention that I don’t see well at night; and that it was raining pretty hard, which explains why all of a sudden we had water over the top of my truck and I couldn’t see anything. This was about the time that I couldn’t breathe because I thought for sure I was going to kill us out in the middle of nowhere because I could not see what was on the other side of the water or if anyone else was on the road. Oh WOW, that was crazy. I wish that I could say that was the only washout we had the misfortune to drive through on that eight mile stretch of road. There was at least three more and at one point I thought we were trapped between two such rivers covering the road. I can tell you that I started to breathe again once we turned back onto a highway and off that most horrible road.

Sleep beckoned me a couple of times and I pulled over into truck stops to catch some Zzz; this causing us to be about three hours behind our well timed schedule and allowing us to travel through the beautiful states of West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina in the daylight. This was awesome, accept for the fact that this meant that I had the opportunity to drive some pretty steep mountain roads and some pretty high up narrow bridges. By the time my daughter took over driving I think my knuckles were permanently white from grasping the steering wheel so tightly for so long and my nerves were beyond shot. I allowed; unknowing, my daughter the privilege of driving through her first and second tunnels that went through mountains. She was very excited; no really, she was because she fortunately doesn’t have the chicken gene that I possess. She loved driving in the mountains and couldn’t understand what all my fuss was about. Once I wasn’t driving anymore and I could formulate a thought, the Holy Spirit helped me to see that all those mountains contained all those trees which held all those leaves that God created with attention to every minute detail, and how much more do we mean to Him than those trees. This helped me to calm down a little and know that God would carry us safely to my friend’s house. I literally said to my daughter; “well when we get to her house I will have either grown stronger or I will melt in my seat like butter.” We arrived at our destination almost four hours late and I was so tired that I was slurring my words; however, I didn’t melt in my seat so I decided upon stepping out of my truck that I must have grown stronger.

As if the journey there wasn’t strengthening enough, we decided to go to the ocean and the beach that my daughter choose was one where we were on a stretch of land only about a half mile wide and we drove to the very end of it. I joked that we were at the ‘end of the earth.’ I asked my adventurous daughter and friend to not stretch me so far out of my comfort zone that I broke. The cool thing was that I was okay; not scared or anxious, I was able to enjoy the beauty and vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. I even stepped into it and stood there for a picture or three. What a wonderful place to be, in the glorious creation of the Master.

I will wrap up this incredibly long story by sharing another message from God that I received in brown and white on our journey home. I was ‘Blessed’ to be the one to drive the first six hours home through all of the beautifully scary mountains of Virginia and most of West Virginia with my white knuckle grip on the steering wheel through these mountains, over the bridges and through the tunnels, which weren’t scary at all (the tunnels, I mean). Whenever I felt fearful I would say out loud, ‘we can do this.’ The ‘we’ was God mostly and a little of me. One of the times I said ‘we can do this,’ I noticed a semi passing me in the faster lane and pull right in front of us and what I saw written in the dirt on the back of the semi trailer was ‘God is Good’ and all I could say is ‘yes He is.’ It was a long journey; kind of like this story, but we made it home safe with the hands-on guidance of our Father and a little help from two of His daughters driving the little black pickup truck. I can definitely say that this vacation made me a much stronger person and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to share it with my most awesome daughter.

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