Love Is In Bloom

This morning I came across a Blog Post that started with: "Dear Church, we need to talk about Mental Health.. and the eye catching quote on the picture was: "It is ok to have Jesus and a therapist too." The words below were my ramblings that I thought no one would actually read, but amazingly it got a big response and I believe it is because people crave vulnerability, openness and authenticity. I get afraid to be vulnerable like the next person and wonder when and what is right to share, but I really felt prompted to say what I said below. Here is my story (in part, trust me this is just the tip of my iceberg!), coming from an aspiring Mental Health Therapist that is a Christian: My parents took me to a Counselor as a teenager for the first time when we couldn’t get along about my curfew, not a “huge” issue, but it was my world at the time and hard for my dad to let me out past ten when my friends were out much longer. They got Logan and I the present of...

 Lately, the same things keep coming to my thoughts when I am not willing them to go a certain way. It all starts with Luke 8:26 and the story of the man who was living by himself naked in a cemetery, unable to be contained by shackles and living a life in isolated darkness. This man lived among caves beside the Sea of Galilee that I had the honor to be able to see with my own eyes last year on my trip there. That spot truck a deep chord in me as I saw it as the spot where a man that everyone feared, ran from, and were repulsed by was sought out, seen, freed, and connected with by Jesus. That man had not truly been seen by anyone in years and his own voice and self had been taken over by demons, enough to fill up an entire herd of pigs. Jesus went out of his way to go to the man that no one else wanted to be around, he truly saw this man that desired freedom and connection. He was healed, freed, and sent back to his family and friends to tell of the wonders Jesus had done. He conne...

 I have met the end of myself lately and let me tell you it is NOT pretty. I feel like a little kid who was running and fell on their face mid skip. It is amazing how good I can believe I am in my own strength when my needs are being met. Sleep, food, self-care, friend time, family time etc. when it gets stripped from me in intense measures I become a shell of who I thought I was. Short- tempered, argumentative, angry, selfish, overly sensitive and more start to come out in every direction. It is times like these that I look to Jesus and say: "It is time for you to show off!" This morning, the kids were really hard to get off to school and we are so tired from our recent ordeal, so morning is not an optimistic thing for me right now. It is a heavy weight I try to open my eyes to and then think, naw, please go away sun! Night, I love you, I want you. I have to admit my soul is feeling a little bit of that as well. I feel like I am trying to come back to the land of the livin...

It is just one of those nights... The kind of night that I need perspective. The kind of night I need my head to be lifted again. The kind of night I expect a miracle in my heart, because in these weak and broken moments I keep my eyes wide, wondering and waiting... how will you show up, God? I know you will. This year has been marked by so many miracles and the impossible becoming possible. I think about the many health struggles I have had the past eight years and that finally we have been able to put labels on systemic causes. I love that not only are my doctors getting some clues, but in Counseling classes I am learning about how the body responds to emotions and how every emotion has a physical manifestation. I don't like to feel negative feelings, so many times I have ignored casting my cares and instead stuffed them really, really deep down. I know how to be happy, I know how to get back to stable ground, but what I do not know how to do is to process the hard. Ironical...

Tomorrow, I will have officially been Mrs. Logan Bloom for nine years, and I tell you what, we have come to a sweet season. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from Robert Lewis who said to think of your marriage as a mountain range, there will be many highs and many lows, but it is a long journey and you never stay in either. When in a low, remember another mountain top is coming. He was right! I  have a theory that newborn baby season of life is one of the hardest on a marriage, because of all the lack of sleep and needs a baby has. And we just kept doing that four times in a row like the crazy people we are, but we sure made a great team. I love that we aren't so much in survival right now, our kids are at a precious golden age and we get to have more opportunities to be around each other not completely tired.  Logan has been such a good partner and friend. I owe a lot of the quality of our marriage to him! I am a lot to handle, I am passionate, fe...

“Winds in the east, theres a mist comin' in Like somethin' is brewin' and 'bout to begin. Can't put me finger on what lies in store, But I feel what's to happen all happened before.” -MARY POPPINS        The winds of change are sweeping the Bloom house and there is only one way for us to go, forward. Samuel, Evelyn and I are spreading our wings a little bit more as our season changes from the babyhood years, to the school years. Samuel is going into First grade, Evelyn is starting Kindergarten and I am going to chase a new dream in Graduate Counseling school. I have always said I will do many things in my life, but one of my core dreams was to stay at home with my children until they reached Kindergarten. As I watch Evelyn walk into her classroom on Wednesday, I will  have officially fulfilled that sacred dream of mine.       These past seven years of being a stay at home mom have been my delight, even the ...

     Life as Mrs. Logan Bloom these past eight years has been nothing short of an adventure and delight. Even the hard times have grown us so much that I am thankful for all of it. We have seen God pave our path with miracles every step of the way and grow our relationship even deeper as the years have gone by. I have to attest that Logan's character is a big reason it has been so great. He is so loving, kind-hearted, humble and doesn’t get angry. I am not just saying that, It is like a super power he has to stay calm and kind! At the top of my future husband hopes growing up, I gave myself in all caps this advice: "run from an angry man, marry someone who isn't an angry person." Logan is the opposite of an angry man. I want to be more like Logan.:) Eight years ago we were two starry eyed college kids wanting to go into ministry together, with nothing but hope for the future. Our hope was in God, in his ability to lead us, in his goodness and belief that he would ta...