12 Weeks Without Our Girlie

Twelve weeks ago today, our life was forever altered. Our precious daughter, Natalie, was killed while driving to work when an SUV swerved into her lane, hitting her head-on. She was killed instantly.

To say it has been a difficult time is the largest understatement ever uttered. My friend, Beth, wrote a post about our tragedy. Feel free to read that post to “catch up” if you weren’t aware before.

You know Natalie from her graphic and photography work here on Successful Homemakers. She was my right arm in  running this site. I honestly don’t know how to work without her. She had been teaching me how to edit photos as well create graphics and photos. I was learning but always asked for her artistic eye to look it over when I was finished. She’d suggest a color change, a font change, or some other small change that would take it from just okay to finished.

Our grief has been huge. Realizing that Natalie is not coming home is something that slaps us all in the face several times per week, sometimes several times per day. There is no way to accurately convey to you the emotions we’ve experienced.

Through it all, God has been so gracious. His people have blessed us greatly. We see His hand in the meals, monetary gifts, practical gifts, gifts of services, flowers, prayers, and words of comfort that we have received.

I have been away from this blog since May 1st. Just now, I’m finding inspiration and the ability to write coherently. I appreciate you, my dear reader, for sticking with me, in spite of my absence.

What does this mean for my blog going forward? I don’t completely know yet. I am learning to take each day, each moment as it comes. Some days, I only cry a few times. Other days, I find I’m in tears for most of the day.

I know that I want to encourage you to spend as much time as humanly possible with your family. To mend any broken “fences” with your family. To hug your children. To tell them you love them. To make memories with them. To not put anything off for another day.

I have many things that I put off for another day. Except there are no more days for me to spend with Natalie. All that remains are memories with and of her. That’s really hard to accept, especially since she was only 17 years old.

As a family, we are still grieving our tremendous loss. I have read the thoughts of fellow Mamas of child loss and know this is a long, hard road. It’s not something you ever just “get over.”

What does the future look like for Successful Homemakers? My heart is still to encourage homemakers in their most vital role, I will share my thoughts and feelings, as I always have done. Since grief and loss are such heavy burdens to bear, I will be sharing about it as I feel so led. Rest assured, though, that this is a homemaking site so the recipes, family posts, DIY projects, entertaining tips, and the like will certainly continue. For now, have a look through the archives for those posts.

What can you do? Help keep Successful Homemakers active. It’s as simple as sharing one of our blog posts on your social media channels. Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter are the top three that I use to promote this site. Since we do depend upon the income that this site produces, your sharing these posts will help keep that income coming in. I thank you for your words of comfort and support as well as your sharing in this way.