Are You Surviving or Overcoming?

It was a dark season, and I never wrote about it online or spoke about it in public. When I began to research adversity three years ago, I never dreamed I'd experience my greatest struggles of motherhood, twenty-two years into being a mom. I finally put words to paper in Building a Resilient Life.

It all began when Cade had a meltdown that quickly escalated and required immediate intervention. For the next eighteen months, Cade’s anxiety and defiance turned inward, resisting every turn, slamming his head into windows and walls at mealtime and his headboard at bedtime. We sought counsel from doctors, psychologists, and family therapists, as my insomnia reached an all-time high, whispering chronic prayers for rescue and peace.

Sometimes I glimpsed a momentary breakthrough when I knelt close, whispered, and waited. “Mommy loves Cade, do you want a hug?” In those patient, quiet moments Cade would start bawling and let me hold him. When he wept, I saw him fully. I saw the rest of us fully. Cade expressed what many of us were feeling. Breaking under the weight of change and loss.

We’ve all walked through adversity these last few years. I wonder what trials are you are facing? What weariness are you enduring? What overwhelm are you buried under? What I know now, is that adversity awakens. It awakens us to what we’re capable of and what’s worth fighting for.