B is for Bloom

B is for BLOOM - One of the best pieces of wisdom that I ever received was "Bloom where you are planted."  It served me well through the years as I found myself in new places every few years (or even months).  My husband and I were "high school sweethearts" but didn't get married until we were 21 - that year was crazy!  He joined the Marine Corps and left for boot camp in February, he "graduated" on May 23 in South Carolina, we got married on May 25 in Florida, we whisked away for a weekend in Orlando, and about a week later he flew off to attend training in California leaving me behind to pack up our belongings and move to California a few weeks later.  I had absolutely no idea what was in store for us but hey, we were in this adventure together.  Come December of the same year, we were moving to Georgia where we would live for 9 months.

Long story short, we moved 12 more times before ending up in the home we are in now - a grand total of 14 different houses over the last 26 years - that is an average of 22 months per house but some houses were for just a few months at a time and we have actually lived in this one for six years.  Oh, and did I mention we have four children?  All of that moving and we never did figure out how to downsize, let's just say we managed to accumulate a lot of stuff over the years and moving lugging it all over creation was always challenging.  We are pretty good at packing and unpacking though and thank God my husband is a logistics guy!

Well, how does one Bloom when waking up in a new location on a regular basis?  Not to mention, that I found myself alone a LOT (including during several of those moves I mentioned).  How does one fluctuate between being part of a team and long stretches of being a single mom?  By taking the advice of "Bloom where you are planted" - that's how!  Although we found ourselves in a whirlwind of continuous changes, the one thing that remained the same was our faith and determination.  As long as we remained in our foundation, we could handle whatever life and the Marine Corps threw our way.  I even have the word BLOOM emblazoned across my wall to remind me!  (thus the photo above)