My book club for December is “The Tale of the Three Trees” retold by Angela Elwell Hunt.

A Christmas tradition when I was growing up was to get a new ornament each year. For one of my mom‘s last Christmases she gave us a wood carved Santa ornament and shared this book with us.

I love the journey of each of the trees and how they each end up having a special connection to the Savior. I still get teary every time I read it.

A dear friend was reading this book to a group of young women and I was emotional again. This time the book took on a new twist for me.

I once had a vision of how my life would look and I was devastated that my life wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. I was confused and there was a lot of new things I had to navigate in ways I never believed I ever would need to.

Now Mark and I have the perspective of what God had in store for us.

I love that Mark and I share similar stories and of always being true to who we are. We were married to people that didn’t show their true selves until much later and chose a life we couldn’t support or live with any longer. After fighting for them in unhealthy ways we were both forced to divorce.

It was the darkest times of our lives and included a lot of feelings especially being disposable.

We both had taken on way more in our marriages and were willing to be the last priority constantly in support of our spouses. Living like a single parent while still married gave us the benefit of life getting easier in divorce. We also didn’t need anyone but worked hard on learning more and getting to be better versions of ourselves.

Then the universe and mutual friends trying to get us together worked and we finally met.

Mark is absolutely my person meant for me. God knew we needed a different path to be together as better versions of ourselves. Mark absolutely enhances my life. Now we know what it is like to have a partner that contributes to what we are trying to build.

Our life certainly is not the ideal and definitely doesn’t fit “the mold” but now our journey is one of the best gifts God has given us.

I love Mark and our imperfectly perfect life together.

What ideals have you let go of?

#bookclub #healing #threetrees #remarriage #hope