'Surviving' Mode vs. 'Thriving' Mode

I'm starting this blog series on surviving vs. thriving to record the journey we are currently going through. We've been in 'surviving' mode since June 2012, when my older son was born. The list of things that kept us in survival mode is pretty bananas...

*pre-eclampsia emergency hospital stay June 2012 (lasted 5 days)
*son was born June 2012, 4 weeks early
*gallbladder started acting up, was removed through emergency surgery and a 3 day hospital stay Sept 2012
*mom was diagnosed with leukemia October 2012
*moved 2 hours away with 4 month old, to care for mom's affairs and help with my younger siblings October 2012 - April 2012
*found out I was pregnant with baby2 Jan 2013
*put on bedrest Summer 2013
*developed pre-eclampsia August 2013
*son #2 born August 2013

Since baby #2's birth we have been in survival mode- transitioning to life with 2 closely spaced babies wasn't very easy. All that stuff sounds so terrible when I typed it out but watching my mom's battle through leukemia, while sobering, there was so much victory and joy in being able to cherish and serve her during that time. These challenging months we've been through have been a blessing long term and both my husband and I have had major growth spurts spiritually and emotionally during these times.

Here we are, 7 months later and finally getting to the point where we can start moving from just surviving and keeping our heads above the waves to really thriving personally and as a family.

Part 1 of this transition was getting our sons on a good schedule, which we have done finally!
Part 2 of this transition is getting our home under control.

This week we are taking the boys to a family member's home for a few days and purging and deep cleaning and organizing our disaster zone. I'm excited, nervous for the amount of work... and looking forward to getting a little more sleep than I usually do. Woot!

I'm excited to write more for this series. I didn't start this blog as a parenting blog because that's already 70% of my life and efforts, and while I'm passionate about raising my boys to be amazing and God-fearing adults, I really don't want to lose my true passion in that- fostering personal growth, health (spiritual and physical), and the growth of marriages- ours and others. A little bit of parenting stuff might bleed through into this and I'm gonna let that be okay.

Next up in this series is survival through 'surviving' mode