Happy anniversary to us <3

I realized yesterday that, as I have been receiving notices for all the annual fees associated with running this little slice of the internet, we had an anniversary this month and I totally missed it.

The first post for Journey Onward was October 11, 2013!

I can’t believe it has been thirteen years.

When I started the blog, blogs were a big thing. I loved reading several different offerings, but all were written by young moms.

Here I was a new grandma with our last child graduating from college and I wondered where the women were who were writing about this phase of life. I couldn’t find them so I decided to be one myself.

I was scared and had no idea what I was doing as Russ encouraged me to write my words of encouragement in a place where others could read it.

If you have been here from the start, you know he sent me to a conference called She Speaks led by Lysa Terkheurst. I took notes and asked the tech guru at our church to help me and here we are, thirteen years in to the Journey as you know it.

How is it going?

I still am scared and I still have no idea what I am doing half the time.

Case in point…yesterday I sat at my laptop to write all of this to you to start the week.

When I went to log in, I knew I had hit a wrong key for my password. I backspaced but nothing happened so I backspaced again. And then one more time…

And promptly blocked myself from my own website because in my sleepy state I was hitting enter instead of backspace.

I spent the rest of the day figuring out how to fix my error and I was so sad and discouraged.

And all of that experience, once the frustration was over and my sign in reappeared, reminded me how grateful I am to Russ for supporting me emotionally and financially all these years and to you for showing up.

For thirteen years, I have sat on this side trying to imagine who might be on the other side and praying I have the words you need to think, laugh, remember your own journey and mostly just see how God shows up in ordinary lives like yours and mine every single day.

Thanks for walking with me on this path.

You are dearly loved <3