Maybe it’s because my mom loves doing “mom” things for me like making breakfast, filling up my coffee cup (3x) and covering me up with extra blankets when I nap. Maybe it’s because I need a break from the real life of being a busy business owner, a wife, and a puppy mom. Or maybe it’s because this place will always be home to me and will hold the girl I used to be inside our home’s four walls. The people here still know me as the high school diver and runner, people still call me by my maiden name, and everyone is so good at picking up right where we left off (as though years and years haven’t passed.)
I sometimes wonder what life would be like if I never left our town, if I didn’t move five hours away to a school in Wisconsin, if I didn’t have the guts to get out and see something new. I kind of wonder what that girl would be doing, who she would be friends with, where she would hang out. They always say that everything happens for a reason and looking back I see life lining up for me long before I even had a clue that God’s hand was involved. There are so many “what ifs” and “if thens” in life that we often forget that things are moving in the direction they should be, that His plan is better than ours and that someday all of the craziness might make sense. I could go on and on about the randomness that led me to where I am now. From a trip to the Wisconsin Dells that left me doing flips on a diving board (which started my diving career) to the fact that I thought the name Stevens Point sounded cool and I had to check out their swim team. From the way I declared pre-med and then switched to communication and met a cute boy (Drew) in class. How I worked for Target, got placed at a store far from my apartment and ended up moving to the tiny town we now happily call home… it all is too divine to think that it just happened, life is a lot like that.
For now, I’m going to continue pretending that I am 15 and continue to love the fact that my mom makes me french toast in the morning, I’m going to soak up the fact that I remember who grew up in which house and how to avoid getting stuck by the train, I’m going to sleep on the couch, leave my clothes in a pile, and lose bobby pins all over the house… but I’m also going to bask in the fact that there is a Creator who’s plan is far superior to our own and who has lined up one hell of a life for me. I feel nothing but lucky to be home in Duluth and a kid again but I can’t wait to get back to my new life with my little family, a home of our own, and our friends.
Thank you : Chloe Ann Photography for this photo of me!
