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Avery's Birthday Party - An Anniversary of the Day Our Lives Changed Forever.

Avery still has two more weeks until her actual birthday, but because it always lands in Thanksgiving week, I try to have it earlier so more kids can come. This time, I decided to have her birthday at my new apartment. It's been about 4 years since I had a birthday party for her at my house....and it's been over a year since I've had people over for a party, period. 

Despite the gas line not working in the courtyard area for my great idea of doing s'mores around the fire pit in my courtyard, the kids had a fabulous time. Adults did too! It was SO nice to have friends over again, for Avery and I, both. We are always the hostesses...so it's nice to be able to do that again. Last year about this time, I was selling my house and moving in with my mom and dad. 




The year before that, two years ago, was when my life fell apart. 

Not to totally hijack my child's birthday celebration, but Avery's birthday party day will always be a Memorial Stone for me. "Memorial stones" is a reference to the Israelites, as they had been freed from slavery. God told them to take a rock from a river and put it in their house, so when people ask, "Why do you have this rock?" they could tell them it was a reminder of when God brought them through a difficult time. Memorial stones aren't always stones to me, but there are certain dates and things in my life that have memorial stones. It just so happens....Avery's birthday party day is one for me. 

This woman in the picture below...she'd planned a big, beautiful tea party birthday party for her daughter. The entire week, Avery couldn't WAIT to go. Her dad was out of town on business the whole week and was supposed to come home Saturday, the day of her party. That morning, instead of coming home, I got a text from him that said, "I don't want to do this anymore, I want a divorce." Then he got on a plane to come back to Texas and moved in with his parents. He didn't even come to her party that night. 

The woman in the picture below had literally been crying in secret all day long, as she tried to keep a happy and upbeat face for her 7 year old child, then had to keep it together as everyone came to the party and pretend like what happened that morning, hadn't actually happened. Luckily, with it being a tea party birthday, the only man that actually came was MY dad, cause Avery had decided last minute that she didn't want any boys to come, so it worked out for her that she didn't realize what was going on. 


The woman in that picture had NO idea what was about to happen to her life, but she was completely and totally devastated. 

Two years later, I never would have imagined my life as it is now, with me and Avery celebrating her birthday as a 9-year-old and her single mom, in our own two-bedroom apartment. The woman in the picture below, the woman I am today - she has her joy back. 




I wore this shirt to Avery's party because of this very reason. It's Psalm 30:5b: "Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning." 

I got to celebrate my daughter's birthday and it doesn't have to be a reminder each year of the pain of what happened or what I've lost, it can be a reminder of how far I've come - how far WE've come. It can be a reminder of God's amazing provision and promises to never leave us. It can be a reminder that pain might come in the night, but joy will always come in the morning. 

It was a really great day. 





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