It's been 3 years since I last hosted
Belle Brita's Love Blog Challenge. Actually 3 years since I was regularly blogging anything at all. Not too surprising in a way, since 3 years ago, 2016, was actually the year where everything changed.
2016 was the year we welcomed our son into the world. While none of us could imagine our live without him, for us, going from 1 to 2 babies, was so much harder than when we had our first.
It was also the year when the small family owned company I worked for was bought out by a Fortune 500 company almost 10 times our size. Don't get me wrong, in the years since there has been a lot of opportunity and positive changes, but at the time, not knowing what to expect was all a little overwhelming.
2016 was also the year we lost our home and most of our belonging to an unprecedented flood here in Louisiana. Someday I'll write down our survival story, how we practically swam out of our house with our 1-year-old daughter and belongings floating in an inflatable pool. How we hitched rides in 3 different cars, 2 different boats, and finally a national guard truck to spend the night at a shelter in a middle school gym. But that whole story will need to wait for another day.
I've told many people that 2016 was the worst year of my life. (Even worse than the year I lost my mom, which was another pretty awful one.) After all,
everything changed, seemingly for the worst. I know we've all heard that cliched line, "You're so strong, I never could have done what you did." And yet, when faced with the worst you really don't have a choice. It isn't necessarily strength, but more survival. You just have pick yourself up and keep going, because eventually things will turn around and get better.
Finally, 3 years later, I'm in a place where things are starting to feel normal again. They aren't the same as they were in 2016, but I finally feel like I'm in a good place. Yes, I'm still upset that I lost all my Victoria Secret bathing suits, my yearbooks from every year of school, and so much more. But I can also laugh about it now. Yes, everything changed, but yet there's so much good now, I'm not sure I'd go back and change things. (Except maybe move more personal items to the attic to keep them safe, but when faced with disaster you don't always think rationally. Although now, if anyone were to ask me what I would save if my home was on fire, I have a real life example to use!)
Today I'm co-hosting Belle Brita's Love Blog Challenge, a link-up for the month of February. See below for more info on the link-up and to meet the other hosts.
Brita Long is the pink and sparkly personality behind the Christian feminist lifestyle blog,
Belle Brita. On her blog and social media, you'll discover more than authentic storytelling--she's brutally honest about pursuing a fulfilling and joyful life even with Crohn's Disease and depression.
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Alessia is a lifestyle
blogger, and writer with a post-graduate degree in History. She lives in the best borough in London, up and coming Croydon. She's a bit like Emma Woodhouse (Pemberley Digital version) and no longer the most eligible Catholic bachelorette, as she has found her Mr Knightley in sunny Derbyshire.
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Shoshanah is a California girl who moved to Louisiana and fell in love. (Hence her blog,
From L.A. to LA.) She is the mother of a 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son. She loves all things pumpkin, reading (especially historical fiction), and gingerbread lattes.
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