The last four or five years has been full of upheaval. Even before our house fire, when my parents moved out of our childhood home, there was a lot of stress and change. I have spent the last few years thinking “In just a few months our lives will be back to normal.” Then a few months would go by, and no “normal” would show up.

I am finally realizing that “normal” is something I’ll have to define in the future. There’s no going back to what was. Even if I could, I wouldn’t be the same person I was five years ago. God didn’t bring me through this to put me back where I was. I am being prepared to be and to do something different. Whether the latter state is “better” than the first is not up to me. I can only go forward and see what’s available to me right now. The past is what I have learned from, but it’s not a permanent place to live.