Taking Off Anyway

Sitting on the plane, waiting to take off.  

It’s a beautiful, sunny day—blue skies, warmish temperatures. The drive to the airport was stunning, the water so calm and clear.  

And it’s days like this that make me question everything.  

This is honestly the most beautiful place I have ever lived. It was our dream for so many years, and today felt like a reminder of why.  

Even after a brutally cold, long, snowy winter… days like today make you forget the last several months of weather misery. “This is the reason we live here,” is what you’ll hear locals say. We’ve said it too.  

But lately, I’ve had to really pray and sit with a harder question—what actually matters most in life?  

Is it the weather? The lake views? The changing seasons?  

Or is it being surrounded by people who truly love you?  

The ones who encourage you, walk alongside you on your darkest days, and still challenge you—still hold you accountable.  

Do you stay somewhere you feel like an outcast, expected to fit into a perfect mold, just because you love the landscape?  

Or do you leave… and go back to where you’re accepted exactly as you are—where the messiness of life isn’t what defines you, but what connects you?  

I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I—my marriage, my children—we need that kind of support around us.  

Not the surface-level kind that only shows up when life looks “perfect.”  

Not the kind that stays as long as you’re wearing the mask.  

But the kind that stays when everything falls apart.  

The kind that sees you clearly—mask off—and doesn’t leave.  

We all need that.  

A place where we don’t have to pretend to have it all together just to be accepted.  

I’ve felt stagnant, lost, distant, and lonely for too long.  

And I don’t want to just survive anymore.  

It’s time to grow. To heal. To actually live—even if it’s hard.  

So now, the plane is taking off.  

Over two thousand miles away.  

A completely different landscape.  

The next step in this journey…  

the journey back to where we came from.  

A place I never imagined I would return to.  

Right now, my faith is the only thing holding me together.  

The only constant truth in my life.  

I trust You, Lord, with all my heart.  

I’m clinging to You.  

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”  Proverbs 3:5–6