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![Godly Mamas and Good Water… [one year later]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/CAE93EFB-3332-4651-9FD9-F2F5993AFF1E-1024x1024-1.jpeg)
It was the Clifford women who gathered early that second morning to sing as we waited the arrival of others. Her favorite hymn was Rock of Ages. Mama knew (and sang) every word of each stanza. She likely played it on the piano thousands of times over her lifetime. “While I draw this fleeting breath,…
![Returning Home… [and gift(s) from the sea]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CBE06D9E-B7C8-4F4D-826F-25E68F9EBF89-1024x1024-1.jpeg)
Recently, I spent a glorious three days with the fam on the beaches of Alabama. And although we weren’t able to make it all the way to our beloved 30-A, just being in Alabama and Mississippi rendered a strange sense of being back home!? Although, we’ve never lived in those places… Even stranger, as we…
![A Trusted Friend… [in a time of need and grief]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/E7A52A7C-6019-4BBA-B2C2-38A427304C1A-915x1024-1.jpeg)
One year ago, I made a new friend. But not the kind you’d expect, I met my new Target store. I sat in this Target shopping center while my mama braved a calcium drip at twice the speed. (Although, I told her not to do it.) We were becoming regulars at dropping her off at…
Sometimes, I forget… I’ve told the story so many times the pen is near rote. God said go. And through His strength and wisdom—we did! Through His all-knowing, we avoided the devastation of battling a pandemic and mama’s cancer from cross-country. And without the ease of financial burdens lessened. He saved my heart from near…
![Am I Where I’m Supposed to Be…. [asking for a friend]!?](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/24A203FA-2220-4E9C-9BE6-29F9F3DF3553-scaled-1.jpeg)
I have long dreaded this first week back in January. Knowing this week is when our journey began, I worried. Would I feel saddened by the long, brutal journey of moving to Hometown, OK knowing mama would leave this earth just a few months later? Not to mention, now being marooned in a foreign land…
Grief is a bitter pill. The tears so close to the surface, I don’t dare let them spill. For if I did, the hydrant may never drip dry. The dreaded first Christmas now looms in recent past. But early January 2020, looming ever larger… ************************* In what seemed the shortest week of the year in…
![Naming [and Doing] the Hard Things…](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/B36E98BE-B222-4078-9FA1-DF903CAB576C-scaled-1.jpeg)
“I can do hard things, if it’s only for a season” is what I kept telling myself, as my mama’s care demandingly increased. What an incredible honor and how exceedingly joyful it was to serve her so well in her final weeks, days, and moments, but caring for someone you love going downhill that fast…
In those hard, early crime fighting days, we called ourselves the Three Amigos. This past winter, I had planned to slowly unpack our story of combatting crime and evil for all of you. But God had different plans… It was almost a year ago when I pulled The car aside into a North Dallas park…
![[A Holy Marker… ] My Mama’s Cancer Journey](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/B0226A81-6DC5-4D85-83FE-2E598310712D-scaled-1.jpeg)
“Falling leaves are summer’s way of telling us goodbye.” – unknown Three incredibly difficult seasons have come and gone since I last posted to the A Meaningful Journey blog site. All I can say is… God and cancer can move at lightning speed!? I can’t say as to why God chose to move me across…