Welcome to life's highway

Welcome to my journey along life's highway.

I thought I would begin by giving you a little background. I was born and raised in the great state of TEXAS. In fact, I lived in my hometown for the first 29 years of my life. Ten years ago, my husband of almost five years and I moved ourselves to St. Louis, Missouri so he could begin his education and training at Concordia Seminary to become a Lutheran pastor. We took with us a car, a pickup, a cat and a schnauzer, our 6 month old son, and everything we owned.

Four years later, Matt graduated and was called to be the sole pastor of a Lutheran church in Cleveland, Ohio. Once again, we moved ourselves, our 4 year old son, our 1 year old daughter, a car, a minivan, two dogs and a cat, and everything we owned to Cleveland.

After living in Cleveland for five years, I moved back to Texas last summer with my four kids-Alexander, then age 9; Rebekah, age 6; Elijah, age 3 and Emma, almost 2 years old. My beloved rottweiler and Matt's beloved schnauzer had passed away but we still had the cat and I had added a chihuahua to the family. The black Ford F-150 pickup was being brought to Texas to be sold to Matt's sister. I had the Honda Odyssey mini-van packed to capacity. A moving company was hired to move everything we owned back to our hometown.

It was the first move that Matt didn't organize and execute himself. He couldn't. He was already home. In Heaven, safe in Jesus' arms of love. Matt passed away in his sleep on a cold, rainy day in February 2008. The story of that sad day, well I will save it for another time, another entry.

In the last 15 years, the highway of life has taken many twists and turns. There have been hills and valleys, sunshine and storms, many miles traveled. There is now definitely a before and an after in relation to Matt's unexpected death. I have adjusted as best I can but life will never be the same because I have lost my traveling companion. My story is not all sad. Everything is just different now. There will be many memories to reflect upon and share.

And the journey down life's highway continues.

Stacey