This blog has been a labor of love. The desire of my heart to is to help other people navigate this life’s low blows. We all have that thing that takes us by surprise, knocks us off our feet, and even makes us question everything. My youngest son was diagnosed in 2012 with a progressive, aggressive, and fatal form of Muscular Dystrophy – Duchenne (DMD). He was in 1st grade at the time. We were devastated. We didn’t know which way to turn. I remember sitting at the kitchen table, all hours of the night, googling anything that would give me some sort of direction or hope through the cards we were just dealt. I remember just being lost. My husband and I decided one night that we were going to handle this with positivity, joy, hope and more than a little bit of grit. We refused to let it tear our family apart. So we made it a mission to embrace our new normal – or at least not fight it tooth and nail!

We still pray for a cure every day. We will do anything this side of Heaven to help advocate for that cure and for our child. While we do that, we have chosen the path of joy instead of despair. That doesn’t mean that we don’t fall. It just means when we do, we have steps set in place to help us get back up and face the world. Every single one of us goes through something that knocks us down. I’d love to share with you how our family thrives – not only survives – anything this life throws at us.

This life is full of devastation. And you will stay in that space of devastation if that is what you decide to focus on. But over the past few years, I have been blessed to see the positivity and giving nature of others. The good definitely outweighs the bad. I choose to focus on the good. I choose to focus on the beauty, diversity, and generosity of those around me. You just have to be willing to open your eyes and heart to it all. And some days, when it’s extremely difficult to find the good, I pull yourself up by the bootstraps and pray to stay upright. I tell myself “You got this. It might not look pretty. But you are making it!”

I’m happy to share my journey with you and hope that it may help you fight whatever battle life is waging on you or a loved one right now. Some of you may have found me from my son’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tjstriumph. I will continue to post updates of TJ’s medical journey there from time to time. I simply found it time to branch out a bit for several reasons. Over time, I might repost some Facebook entries here on this blog. It won’t be all at once though ’cause…

Sweet Brown is my friend and she doesn’t even know it! I heart her!!

Seriously, thank you for taking the time to visit me here. I look forward to spending time with you. Please subscribe below to download a free copy of my “Five Steps to (re) Claim Hope After a Life-Altering Event” and to receive updates.

From the sincerest recess of my being, Welcome!

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