Have A Little Faith in We

So many of you have started following our blog as a way to watch as our transplant story unfolds. This has been such a helpful tool to share updates, document our journey, and for me to process my emotions around the experience. Since November 30 our life has been in survivial mode: getting through the surgery, struggling through our growing pains, managing the administrative side (new lungs aren’t free), while reacting to the unexpected. As a result our blog has been a narrative of our story and often where you find us right in this moment. However that is not the sole purpose I write.

As we begin to experiences glimpses of regular life: I have returned to work, Danny is starting to spend some time outside the household walls, and we are starting to return to our regular activities (we went to the movies this weekend?!!!??!!!?), the blog will also begin to revert back to its original purpose. Today I am taking a moment to introduce the entire blog to our new followers and describe what you will begin to see from my corner of the internet.

The blogs I follow are used as a tool for bloggers to tell their story, document their family life, and share their wisdom. There are a millions types of blogs, but the ones that share the heart of a woman are what speak the most to me. First I started reading them just to see their outfits, learn hair and make-up tricks, or to enviously stare at their beautiful family photos. But as the time passed I began to truly follow their stories.  I prayed for their intentions, cheered for their successful adoptions, hurt over lost pregnancies. Or instead of just “liking” their product posts- I started to go to them in need of solutions to my shopping dilemmas (it ranged from photo galleries and scarves to planners and furniture). They became like friends and before I knew it I was thinking like them too. I would say to Dan “that would make a good blog post” or “this is a memory I would capture”. Danny also began to take an interest, asking what my goal would be, who are audience is, and what kind of details we would be willing to put into print. And then on 2014 I started our first blog: Have A Little Faith in We.

Until I found my voice I wanted to write without telling anyone. Sure if you Googled us, you would find it, but I needed to better understand what we would experience, before telling all of our family and friends. As I went through this transformation and eventually the decision to start sharing our blog, something incredible happened in my life. From the blogs I read, from the bloggers I have come to cherish, and from the connections I am making, my life is actually changing. In the past year, when life became the most challenging the world of blogging brought me to many (MANY) stories of hurting, loss, pain, and survival. The stories have been so different – a woman who had a stroke in her 20s, a family whose little boy drowned, a military wife doing life as a widow, infertility that almost destroyed a woman’s life that now gives 3 special orphans a home, a farmer who has turned into a New York Times Best Seller, a mom who goes through the journey of breaking her daughters’ spine to re-fuse it back together so she can walk, an affair that saved a marriage, a family who was homeless who have come full circle…. in this internet world of perfection these women bared it all – messy, heartbreaking – not that perfect Pinterest outfit you envy, but stories that anyone would say, “please dear God, not me”. And then they ALL shared the incredible power of God’s strength, the gift of His grace, and the profound mercy that is His perfect timing.

My eyes and heart were broken WIDE OPEN. Suddenly I began to notice all the different suffering surrounding us in this world and just maybe its not about getting back to “regular” life, maybe it is about enduring our struggles, so we learn compassion to help others through theirs. And when I did have my toughtest moments these last few months, I have poured over their many stories over and over again – learning to have the faith they discovered, finding the ability to seek the Lord’s presence for my comfort as the recommended, and to know that miracles can truly only come from the brokenness. This world of blogging has changed my spirit.

So with that – both Danny and I have felt called to really share our story. Maybe not all at once, certainly not all while its happening  but as we continue to survive and with God’s grace thrive we will write. Others may face a similar path, or maybe a completely different one and yet they are desperate to know that you can learn to live in the gray. To read that being in a period of life that is defined by the unknown doesn’t also have to be full of loneliness and pain. Do we have it all figured out? Not one little bit – but I think, thanks to the bearing of others’ pain, sorrow and subsequent stronger faith – we are encouraged to share our journey and the faith that has found its way to our home. If more of us believe in sharing the truth and how God has provided, think of the hope that can provide healing. And even when blogs are just documenting life, you take the time to slow down and capture the ways the journey twists and turns. Then suddenly when you do look back, you will see how it fell together like a puzzle you never knew you were constructing. The incredibles stories of survival are a sign of faith, but so is just sharing in the life we have been given – and I have chosen to take part with Have A Little Faith in We.

As we move forward, the blog will take about Danny’s healing, but also share my musings, some of our favorite products or recipes, and truly just chronicle this life we are blessed to live. It has been fun to share it here and I look forward to what more of this sharing will do, especially as more of you seem to know that to find the Bessettes- you come here. I can promise you my writing will not be flawless, my stories will not always make perfect sense, and both my grammar and spelling will be creative… but it will be ours. And finally I want to thank you all for reading so far and for the many beautiful messages we have received as a result of sharing our story. My hope and intention is to respond to them all….but have not even gotten started. So if you are still here and reading, know I have read every Facebook comment, every blog message, every email, every Facebook messenger, and each Instagram comment… and let it fill my heart, I just haven’t had a chance to respond! But hang in there – I will.

Thanks so much for reading and remember to make it a great day!

Jackie