Somethin’ so out of the ordinary

If anyone has ever read my blog they know that I was devastated by divorce. Some posts were angrier than others and some were dripping with tears of sadness. Throughout the journey and my posts, I always knew and held onto the promise that GOD would use all the things (even the bad ones) to his glory and restore what was lost. Beauty from Ashes – and I made reference to that very statement many times – claiming it and willing it to be true, although I didn’t quite know how the restoration would look.

Of course, you know that GOD provided such an amazing man in Dean and I have a beautiful relationship but my worry was more about my kids and what they didn’t have and the intact family that was taken from them. How would God ever restore that? Would the generational curse of dysfunctional relationships and broken marriages/divorce continue in my kids?

In the day to day trenches, the foundation you lay sometimes gets overlooked and it isn’t until life blesses you with a little glimpse of perspective from those you are trying to impact the most that you actually sit back and think – “OK God this is what you were doing and your way was worth it!”

Just a couple of examples over the last year….

I recently had a conversation with my youngest daughter. She was detailing out for me the qualities of her perfect “boyfriend/relationship. I chuckled because the qualities she described were those qualities she sees in Dean… and those she sees in Dean and I’s relationship.

Maddie recently was excited to have me listen to this song she loves and told me the song reminds her of Dean and I. The song is called Ordinary. Here is a verse from it “The angels up in the clouds are jealous, knowin’ we found… Somethin’ so out of the ordinary”. She gets it! I think they all do. They see how beautiful our relationship is. Finding a “Dean” is now a verb when I talk to my girls about finding their person.

My big kids are grown adults with their own lives but Dean impacts them as well. He has stood in the gap for my son at his wedding, modeling what real men do when they love their families and is just as much of an example to my oldest daughter as he is to my younger daughters.

What has happened over the past 7-8 years has been a gradual identification and recognition of a true love story and a love that has set the bar for future generations. And that is worth all the pain and heartache I have endured to get to this point. God knew what my kids needed and He remixed my life to provide the most beautiful example of a love story – marital love in action and on display for all to witness and strive for in their own lives.