Stress, anxiety, and sadness have been rampant emotions at our house lately, in mass amounts. On Sunday my ex was trying to get a hold of Casidee, but she had no desire to speak to him. He called the house several times, texted my phone (with accusatory texts such as, "Are you going to let me talk to my daughter?") and I was beginning to wonder if he had legitimately gone crazy. I mean, legitimately lost control.
Neither Cas nor I appreciated his behavior.
Brynn, Tay, and Cali were with him, Jay and Sean were with their mom, and West had gone riding with a friend. Cas and I went to church and then decided to head to Donut Falls for a hike. Cas just wanted to hike, she didn't care where, and Donut Falls has been on my bucket list for a long time.
Seemed perfect.
And we talked.
And we adventured.
And, along with every other hiker, we ignored the warning signs, because frankly, if I'm taking the time to hike up to Donut Falls, I am most certainly climbing to the "donut" part, which isn't visible from where the sign sits.
And it was absolutely worth it.
Absolutely.
I think we still have a long road ahead of us (no pun intended with the picture, but I'll take it) emotionally. Cas wakes up most mornings in tears because she doesn't want to go to school, she doesn't want to face life.
And I don't know what to do to help her.
I hug her, and stroke her hair, and encourage her to not give up. I want her to find her happy again.
Until then, we'll hike. We'll eat Subway cookies. We'll pray. We'll visit the therapist. And one day we'll look up from our path, after simply putting one foot in front of the other time and time again, and realize it's long past us.
And if life holds true as it already has for big and heavy trials, we'll be better for it, and closer to our Savior.
