“Growth is the only guarantee that tomorrow is going to get better.”
-John C. Maxwell
I can remember when it all started and the feelings of nervousness not knowing how the journey would play out, but one thing I can say is that I had the vision that I believe was God-given for me at the time in my life. My blogging journey was birthed out of a difficult season of life where I was struggling to find purpose and overwhelmed with what I didn’t realize at the time was postpartum depression. I knew deep down in my heart that God wanted to use me to share what I was learning as I was in a season cultivating my personal growth while at the same time overcoming a hard person battle I was facing with my mind. I always love to write, but I never considered myself to be a great writer, so I felt inadequate in even thinking about starting a blog. But despite how I felt, I decided to start anyway because who am I to stand in God’s way of what He wanted to do in my life?
I started with no experience while at the same time learning as I go. It was a way that I could pour my heart out and express myself freely without holding back because this was a space that belonged to me. Every week I made a goal to share what I was learning in hopes that it would encourage other people to see that they are not alone in their daily struggles. What I never expected was this journey to completely change my life and be what I felt like was a ministry that God has given me to help encourage and give hope to people. The Bible talks about the importance of using the gifts that God has given us and one of my gifts I believe is encouraging. I have the gifting of encouragement so my heart was to be encouraging. Over the years this journey has evolved so much as it connected me to so many people across the world and in my community.
One of the biggest things I have learned from this journey is the beauty of growth. Growth is hard , messy, not linear, and beautiful all at the same time. We aren’t meant to stay the same forever. I believe we should be people who are constantly evolving and growing, just as we see with life naturally. Over these years, my blog has grown in different forms because of how time and social media have evolved. It’s not just blogging; it’s content creation, vlogging, influencing, all in different areas, but it’s not how the journey started.
It’s not always about how we start but what we learn and how we develop as we go through the process of stepping out on faith and allowing God to orchestrate our steps. The process of change starts to shape and cultivate every area of your life as you plunge into it while sharing your authentic self. I feel like I discovered new areas of myself as I stepped out and started on the vision that God gave me in the beginning. It takes a lot of courage to start something and even continue consistently even despite the lack of support and constantly facing the insecurity battles of other people.
This journey has been hard, especially in the beginning. One thing I have learned is you have to always remember the purpose of why you started in mind. There were times I wanted to quit and times I had to take a break so I wouldn’t forget the purpose behind what I was doing. It’s important to allow the Holy Spirit to lead you and show you your capacity and need for each season because over the years things will change and develop. One thing I can say is that God has been so faithful in leading me throughout this journey. It hasn’t been perfect but it has been so worth it.
I am so thankful for this journey. It has blessed my life tremendously and given me an outlet to express myself. I haven’t written many posts this year because my capacity has changed a bit with family life and being a special needs mom of two girls both fighting a rare genetic disorder. Things have gotten a bit hard. I focus more of my attention on content creation as a way of helping to raise awareness for them. I feel like content creation and videos are a lot more effective in helping me to spread the message.
My life has changed so much over the years. Just 6 years ago, I could say my life was pretty normal. Once my girls got a diagnosis, life changed for us. We didn’t notice any symptoms until they were around age three. They were happy, healthy, walking, and thriving kids before that time. That all changed quickly, and now they are both wheelchair-bound, and life just looks completely different. So I am learning to live life differently, while trying to balance taking care of myself and my family to the best of my abilities. Writing has always been a creative outlet for me, and going forward, as I celebrate seven years of blogging today, my writing is going to look a bit different.
I feel compelled to share some of the challenges I’ve faced while navigating grief on a constantly evolving journey. Starting this blog has been a beautiful experience that has helped me grow personally while keeping me in a state of constant discomfort. It’s provided me with a safe space to process and sort through my emotions. Being a special needs parent is inherently difficult and uncomfortable. It feels like I’m on an island, where no one truly understands me, while simultaneously being expected to perform the same tasks I used to do when I had the capacity to do them. My journey of fitness and discipline has brought me peace. Writing and creating give me an outlet to express what’s been bottled up inside, or perhaps more accurately, what’s been produced through life.
Life. That’s what this beautiful journey of growth has been about since the beginning when I first started, but because my life has changed and evolved so much, it just looks a lot different, but it’s still good and so purposeful. That’s the beauty of this journey that even through the growth and all the changes, is that you don’t lose sight of what your purpose has always been about. I could encourage anyone today; my message would be don’t ever forget the purpose behind why you started. If you haven’t started yet and are thinking about starting, what’s God putting on your heart? Just do it. Things don’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t matter if you have all the answers. If God said it, He will lead you through it just like He did for me.
I am incredibly grateful for these years and all the love and support you’ve shown me. Thank you for being on this journey with me and for reading my blog. I hope you leave feeling encouraged. Next week, I plan to kickstart my new writing journey by sharing more about my journey as a special needs mom and how I’m learning to take care of myself while navigating this journey.
Intentional Hope 