Chaotic and joyful. Heartbreaking and peaceful. Exhausting yet fulfilling.

The older I get, the firmer I believe that this life is an experiment in living the word ‘and’. I’ve shared about this idea numerous times and talk about it in daily life more often than I probably should. We spend the entirety of our lives in this middle place between birth and death. A place where the most majestic sunset can punctuate your worst day, where laughter and tears can walk hand in hand in a comically confusing dichotomy, where aspects of death can be beautiful in the same way that parts of life can destroy you.

Those of us who have been acquainted with death and difficulty are intimately familiar with this concept. To long for heaven while simultaneously being in love with life is a feeling refined by fire.

Society has a tendency to make us believe that if life is difficult it couldn’t possibly be good too, right? I beg to differ.

My maternity leave with Hannah was wonderful. Getting to hold both of our earthside girls is a miracle we’ve begged God for for years. There was a peace and simplicity I worked hard to protect – taking a much-needed break from social media and the news, spending time in our garden, getting to know our neighbors, learning about the art of homesteading and becoming better stewards of our property filled my days and my cup.

But it’s also been a difficult few months. Lack of daycare for Hannah, bottle refusal, Lane working out of state for a couple months, and my Grandmother being diagnosed with and dying of pancreatic cancer were on the other side of the coin I was holding.

You don’t need me to tell you life can be difficult and hard – life is fully capable of doing that on its own. But I do want you to know that you’re not alone. That we’re all here in this middle place, figuring out how to get through the ‘and’s of life together. God is here too. He didn’t wait for the perfection of heaven to be with us. No, he came down into this messy middle, as God and human, to walk alongside us through the good and the bad. God understands ‘and’ too.

This is the idea behind our 2024 Team Norah shirt. A reminder that we’re all in this together, God included, through the good and the bad, the hard and the easy. We’re all just living.

And.

We’re kicking off the Team Norah for Ronald McDonald House fundraising a bit later this year because, well, life. But many families that participate in the walk use the walk event to kickstart their fundraising efforts, as any fundraising done before the end of September counts towards team totals! So, head over to our team page to register to join us in person on Saturday, August 17th or donate directly to RMH as part of Team Norah. Or order your 2024 Team Norah shirt today!