Life Transformations

Alternate Endings

| Laura Lee Bonde

December fourth, two thousand and sixteen…a day I’ll never forget.

It was a Friday, and I’d woken up from a bad dream. If I remember correctly, I woke up crying, and it turned out to be one of the most depressing mornings I’d had, and to top it all off, I felt a cold coming on.

You see, during that time, everything was so unsure: the business, my income, our groceries, etc., and the next day, I was scheduled to have a booth at the Rock and had some mixed emotions about THAT. Anyway, it was a tough morning, but I made it through by writing.

If you visit my website, you’ll find a calendar with daily writings. I believe the fourth was some of my darkest thoughts, but by the afternoon, I felt much better, and then, Katie came in.

She said, “Mom, I have something to tell you. I’m pregnant.” Continue reading →

Midnight Silence

| Laura Lee Bonde

I think, for me, one of the greatest gifts is when my kids get along.

Last night, we celebrated my birthday early, and that didn’t happen, and (at least) one of them is still upset. You know how I can tell?

For every birthday, my oldest son, Kyle, wakes that person up at midnight to wish them a happy birthday.

He didn’t wake me up. 💔

To See Myself Through Love

| Laura Lee Bonde

When I was teaching the youth group on Wednesday, I said some things that really touched my heart. I even told them, “If you walk out of here with nothing, at least I know “I” got something out of this.”” It’s amazing how God shows us things, and since then, He’s just been expanding a lot.

One thing I’d mentioned is the way I see myself isn’t how others see me. Continue reading →

Christmas Dinner

| Laura Lee Bonde

I’m not sure when it started, but somewhere along the line, we started a tradition of having ham on Christmas day, and as Kyle and I were shopping for Thanksgiving, he mentioned our Christmas ham, so I knew what I’d be cooking on Christmas.

Although money’s been tight, I knew we’d have our ham because Scott would be with us, and he always takes me grocery shopping. Well, this time, I asked him if we could have steaks one night because I never have the money to buy them.Of course, he said yes, so I was able to get steaks and many more things from the store.

Our plan was to have the ham on Christmas and the steaks another night, but God had different plans for us. It turned out, we had our ham Christmas afternoon and the steaks Christmas evening.

As I was cooking the baked potatoes, Scott was getting the grill ready, so I snapped a picture of the steaks. I hadn’t remembered the last time we had them and wasn’t sure when we’d have them again, so I wanted to grab a memory.IMG_1141

While we were all sitting down eating, it dawned on me: we’d almost lived here four years and had never eaten steaks in our home. So, our first time of eating home-cooked steaks was on Christmas. What a good memory to make!

We’ve had so many good times the last couple of weeks, even though we’ve taken turns being sick. We’ve laughed over games, watched movies and football together, hugged, exchanged “I love you”‘s, and just enjoyed the moments.

And as usual, we forgot to take pictures, but sometimes, the pictures in the heart are clearer than the pictures on the screen.

(At least, I got a picture of those beautiful steaks!)