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As soon as Clint and I got married, we started praying for God to put people in our life we can do life with. The first few years of marriage are hard in the sense that it's all brand new and you're just trying to figure it out together.

In our case, I honestly thought that everything would just click into place. I'd graduate college, finally start a big girl job, and just fall seamlessly into the life I'd half been living in for the previous 4 years.

Well, I moved home and found myself outside the loop, without knowing how it happened or how to jump back in. That resulted in a lot of sensitivity to things that normally wouldn't bother me. Because my feelings were hurt in one area, I'd jump on Clint for doing really insignificant things that sort of annoyed me. We were both really unhappy and constantly bummed. It was a really, really hard time.

We went on a staff retreat back in August and I was surrounded by godly staff wives who genuinely wanted to know how they could pray for me, so I gushed it all out there. We were lonely and uncomfortable and just felt like we were biding time. Our best friends were probably going to be moving away (which they are, but praise the Lord for friendships that will stretch from Nashville to Chicago!). It was just a really weird phase of life.

After that, I had woman after woman come up to me and encourage me and tell me they had been in the exact.same.place.

WOOOOOOOOOOO! I can't even tell you how encouraging that was. Clint and I began to pray diligently for the Lord to surround us with people who loved Him and loved us for who we are. And BOY, has He been more than faithful!

Just a short 4 months later, I can say blessings are overflowing in the friendship department. Last night we met with our newly formed small group for the very first time and I just couldn't stop smiling. To look around and see that most of these people I didn't even know four months ago and now we're in life together! It's just crazy. And encouraging. And wonderful. And just God showing off how faithful He is to us.

So all that to say, I'm happy.