Today's topic was belonging, and the photo challenge was a before loss selfie.  Tomorrow's challenge is a post loss selfie, so I'm going to combine them, since I won't have a topic to write on that day.  It took me a bit to find, since I almost never take selfies, and even less of them have only me in them.  This one was taken in the fall, after Rebecca was born, almost 2 years before our loss.  The topic of belonging is so funny.  Back when this picture was taken, we had made it through our second round of unemployment.  We landed another job, had done excessive work on a rental house, and had found the perfect Church home.  I had frustrations and headaches with the budget and the kids, don't think it was some idealistically perfect situation, but we were beginning our adventures with homeschooling.  And looking back seems like I was in a good spot, more settled with myself in the middle of this adventure called parenting.  Since our loss, which came during a third round of unemployment and was closely followed by another move across the country.  I've felt out of place, like I don't really belong anywhere, not even in my own skin.  But over the last two years, I've slowly made some new friends, deepened some old friendships, slowly gotten accustom to life again.  It's good to feel kinda together again.

9-27-13

9-2-17