.png)
Joyful Friends, Thanks for popping in on my little slice of the internet.
I’m Lillie, it's nice to meet you!
Friendly Reminder, if you prefer a podcast experience you can listen to this chat here.
It was a warm December day almost twelve years ago that my new life began. I married a man who even at our young age was more than I could have possibly dreamed of. Fiercely loved and protected by Handsome I grew as a wife and mother. Through the years we have been blessed with four precious children, our own set of struggles, and cherished adventures.
A young city girl stalkishly loved a country boy and they moved to a home with “way too many trees”. That's a direct quote from my silly younger self y'all. When The Firstborn came along, we officially became parents. Handsome ate my horrible dinners without complaint, and we found the isolation that came with parenthood at twenty-one and twenty-two just what our young marriage needed. Time to find our rhythm, bond as “adults”, and laugh our way through the sleepless nights. A year later our Creative was born, at twenty-two months apart our hands and hearts were full!
During this stretch of hazy parenthood, we grew this crazy farm we call home. Horses became border collies and sheep, dog trials replaced rodeos, and first flights were flown over the pond. To our great surprise, we also grew by another babe, Angel boy.
Parenting Angel not only strengthened our marriage while opening our eyes to how privileged we had become with three healthy children. Our family was complete! As the queen of our castle, I was still a horrible chef, learning to manage a household with three children under five, and preparing to begin homeschooling Firstborn.
Enjoying life’s adventures on this crazy farm, I opened my mouth and tested God. Three months later we found about we had a Princess on the way. Unaware of the void our life had, her birth was the super glue to our family unit. Watching our children grow, learn, laugh, and love is the purest joy I have ever been gifted. These years of their young childhood shaped me into the woman I need to become.
Days before our eleventh anniversary, on another oven-like East Texas, December day, our lives changed with another phone call. At the age of thirty-one, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. As you could imagine this would be devastating for anyone, however for our family, it was almost unbearable. (More on this part of our story in my Cancer Journey post!)
Our devastating diagnosis, side note: I say “our” because in this family no one fights alone, was filtered through an honest but positive viewpoint for our children. The ins and outs of how we navigated that is for a later post, however, I made a promise that they would not witness their mother complain. In making a conscious effort to show our children that we can do hard things with great joy, I unconsciously changed my life. After sharing part of my story with our community, I realized that I shouldn't keep the joy to myself. A Joyful Wilderness is my small piece of the internet where we dive into all the real-life aspects of finding joy in your journey, doing hard things with great joy, and balancing your motherhood life. I will be sharing honest conversations for women about the process I used to find joy and transforming your days into the life of your dreams. My goal is to give you the insight behind handling real-life struggles with happiness and confidence to create your ideal life. Because the leap to overcome hard things is the hardest part! So pull up a chair, and let's spark your joy, this is...