Welcome!

God comes first in everything I do. That's doesn't mean everything I do is perfect, but I want to be like Jesus, so every day I commit to make Him the Lord of my life.  Next comes my amazing family. I'm married to a pastor who also happens to be a police chief! We are total opposites. He speaks softly but commands a room, while I'm loud and "run around like a chicken with my head cut off". (Sorry, it's a Southern thang.) I'm the mother of one son, who kept me on my toes when he was younger and now he thinks he needs to keep me in line! I also have bonus children and grandchildren, wonderful parents I'm so blessed to still have, a sweet sister and a crazy brother, extended family I'd pick if I'd had a choice, and dear friends who have been there for all of my many ups and downs. I'm a proud Southerner, lover of good food, house fixer-upper, sucker for a sale, keeper of many lists, wannabe world traveler, and a collector of useless things. 

I've experienced the heartbreak that comes from divorce, but I've also fallen in love again and learned what healthy, true love is. I've felt time stand still when my child was born with birth defects, but then I've marveled as I watched him grow into a handsome young man. I've seen the look on doctors' faces as they suspiciously examined me and later told me I had cancer. I've felt the physical and emotional pain of losing both breasts and then losing my hair to chemotherapy. I've lived with the "new normal" as a cancer survivor- the cognitive deficits, lack of energy, feeling nerve and bone pain daily but not being able to take medicine for it because I need to be a mother and employee. I've felt the shame of having to be on disability because I just couldn't do it all. But then.... then I slowly got better! 10 years later, I work full time, weigh a bit more, look a bit older, can't do everything I once could, but ohhhh, I have a full life!  I am so blessed, even on my very worst days.