This smile is EVERYTHING!

I NEVER USED TO SMILE LIKE THIS. Interrupting your regularly scheduled BABY PICS to bring you some REAL THOUGHTS. This is a LONG post, but you guys, I think THIS is worth the READ. You gotta hear this! IT'S INSANE!! Stick with me now...>>> The VERY THING that was meant for my DESTRUCTION became part of my DESTINY. It's INCREDIBLE, isn't it? What was meant for DESTRUCTION & full of DARKNESS... A loss unbearable, unimaginable, deeply painful, & horribly tragic. A loss that cannot be compared. A dagger so deep I thought I would never heal. A cross so heavy I was sure I couldn't bare it. What was meant to RUIN me & my life... the greatest TRAGEDY of many... was turned to TRIUMPH. Just like the cross, y'all. JUST like the cross that was INTENDED for EVIL & for DEATH but, instead became a part of our VICTORY. LOVE turned my LOSS into LIGHT. ONLY LOVE could take something GRUELING & make it GOOD. ONLY LOVE could take ME from where I was to where I am now. The tragedies of my life are almost too many to list. Most of you know about my BIG LOSS... when I lost my BIG LOVE - my first husband, Nick Magnotti. But, HOW many of you know about my others? For starters: >> When I was forced to SURRENDER my athletic scholarship at a four year university because of an unknown illness. >> When I was rear-ended by a teen driving 50 miles per hour while I was at a dead stop & ALL of my back was UNDONE. >> When I LOST two babies to miscarriage & thought I might die from a broken heart. >> When I was DIAGNOSED with an "incurable" auto immune disease that left me alone & depressed & stuck on the couch. >> When I was left WIDOWED as a new mom to a wee babe, trying to figure out parenting & how to navigate DEEP GRIEF. >> When certain people in my life that I thought I could trust turned around & hurt me in UNFATHOMABLE ways. >> When I moved across the country, started my own business, scared as ISH & realized emphatically, that it WAS NOT what I wanted to do after all. You guys... I've been HURT. I've been BRUISED. I've been SCARED. I've been SICK. I've been WIDOWED. I've lost MY WILL TO LIVE. I've been told TIME & TIME again by the Devil himself that I wouldn't EVER be able to RECOVER. BUT!! >>> LOVE BROKE THROUGH!! The LOVE of the Creator of the universe!! He took my BURDENS & set me free. He turned ALL OF THE HORRIBLE ISH (YES, EVERY SINGLE THING LISTED ABOVE & MORE that I won't even bother you with) into GOOD. That doesn't mean he made them into "GOOD THINGS." Inherently, they are still bad, still tragic, still evil, still things that should have NEVER happened. BUT, it DOES means he orchestrated a beautiful, mind-boggling tapestry to bring them all together FOR MY GOOD. FOR MY SOUL'S GOOD. For my ETERNAL SELF. & for the GOOD of ALL. HOW INSANE IS THAT?! Like SERIOUSLY!!! HOW INSANE IS THAT?!!! I can tell you already the SMALL WAYS I've seen LOVE transform each of these and y'all Im positive that I'm only aware of a teeny tiny portion of ALL that LOVE is doing and all that is still yet to be done. NO MATTER what your life looks like right now or what your life looks like this side of Heaven, HOPE is not LOST. GOOD is not FORGOTTEN. And, we have a promise that we can't EVER let go of. What was MEANT to KILL is our VICTORY. And, friend, dont forget... you have to get to know LOVE, you have to TRUST him before he will ever work his magic. Start now. DANG, its SOO WORTH IT! #MadeforBrave