{"id":76,"date":"2012-05-10T02:54:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T02:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=76"},"modified":"2015-03-25T15:12:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T15:12:40","slug":"change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=76","title":{"rendered":"Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Change can be hard.&nbsp; I have several friends who are experiencing major changes in their lives.&nbsp; And I&#8217;m not just talking menopause.&nbsp; Some of the changes are filled with great anticipation.&nbsp; Some are filled with incredible heart ache.&nbsp; All of them have an element of uncertainty.&nbsp; It&#8217;s that uncertainty that is so unnerving.<\/p>\n<p>We are anticipating a change at my house in the next three months.&nbsp; My younger kids will be joining their big sister in high school.&nbsp; I know that compared to other changes, this one may seem minor, but it brings a level anxiety for all of us.&nbsp; For my younger children, it is the reality of going to school with 3,000 other kids.&nbsp; And having to meet the requirements of teachers who are preparing them for college.&nbsp; For my older daughter, it is the realization that she has only&nbsp;two years left before she begins a new chapter in her life.&nbsp; (Plus, she likes not having her siblings in the same school; she tires of being known as &#8216;the&nbsp;quad&#8217;s big sister&#8217;.)&nbsp; For me, it&#8217;s knowing that I have just a few more years of active parenting before my children set out to begin their own lives.&nbsp; And though I am very excited to see what God has in store for them, I know it will be hard to see them go.&nbsp; They will soon be adults.&nbsp; They will be making their own decisions and living their lives.&nbsp; Will they be ready?&nbsp; Will they continue to grow in their faith?&nbsp; What will our relationship look like?&nbsp; I don&#8217;t know.&nbsp; The uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>So I look to my friends who are dealing with change now.&nbsp; There are days filled with tears and anger and frustration.&nbsp; But mostly the days are spent leaning on God; trusting that He does in deed have a plan and that He goes with them at all times.&nbsp; I know that change will come.&nbsp; It is inevitable.&nbsp; I know that there may be difficult times ahead.&nbsp; But I know I will not be alone.&nbsp; I will be walking with women who have gone before me.&nbsp; Women who can help me see the pit falls and gain perspective when I am too near sighted.&nbsp; Women who inspire me to fully trust God. &nbsp;For these women, these friends, I am truly grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Change can be hard.&nbsp; I have several friends who are experiencing major changes in their lives.&nbsp; And I&#8217;m not just talking menopause.&nbsp; Some of the changes are filled with great anticipation.&nbsp; Some are filled with incredible heart ache.&nbsp; All of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=76\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}