For Normal

We had the same pediatrician for seventeen years.  Same for our dentist and obstetrician. I like continuity. I like a strong sense of normal. We moved three hours away from our previous home base. Time for a dental appointment? Where to go? Kids need their shots? Turns out to be way more complicated than choosing someone from their online reviews, but it does get done. Our teeth are clean. Half the kids are vaccinated. We are getting to a new normal, and I'm so thankful for the progress.

I'm also thankful for the turmoil. It's offered me the opportunity to do something different. I can change care providers without turning our life upside down if I need too. I'm thankful for the way life on this side of the state has forced me to see the people in my life with fresh eyes and helped me to relate to them in more authentic ways. I needed the change even if I didn't want it.

"There is a time for everything,     and a season for every activity under the heavens:      a time to be born and a time to die,     a time to plant and a time to uproot,      a time to kill and a time to heal,     a time to tear down and a time to build,     a time to weep and a time to laugh,     a time to mourn and a time to dance,     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,     a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,      a time to search and a time to give up,     a time to keep and a time to throw away,      a time to tear and a time to mend,     a time to be silent and a time to speak,     a time to love and a time to hate,     a time for war and a time for peace.  What do workers gain from their toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.  That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.  I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. Whatever is has already been,     and what will be has been before;     and God will call the past to account." Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 Thanks be to God for the seasons in life.