5000

I had no idea until last night when I sat down to write today's post, but this is my 5000th post. 

Five. Thousand. Literal. Blog. Posts. 

I won't lie. I almost gave it up entirely this year. Ten solid years of writing every single day and the overwhelming changes that have come to social media over the last year alone almost got the best of me. People get bolder (and by that, I mean meaner) from their side of a screen and I just sat down and cried to Ryan one night, processing whether or not I should continue. Was it really worth it to keep going when people have no problem slinging opinions like mud? Was it worth opening our family up to scrutiny when all I really wanted to do was just share a little bit of life?

As you can tell, I've kept going. 

It's all changed so much since the very beginning when my posts were mostly recaps of American Idol. (And I'm grateful for that!)

Five thousand posts. Five thousand moments I've shared with you about topics that have shot all over the place, pinball style. 

Thanks for hanging in there with me. Thanks for becoming my friends and encouraging me on rough days. Thanks for laughing with me over awkward moments...you remember ziplining and the waterfalls, right? Thanks for praying for us when we grieved and lost and were stuck in the waiting. Thanks for celebrating for us when God did some extra delightful story-writing. 

So today, for my 5000th post, I wanted to share with you an extra delightful chapter God wrote just in the last week. It's pretty sweet. 

One night last week, I received a random text from my friend Jenna (hi, Jenna!). She sent me a picture of a book cover and these words: "I thought of you this week...I read this book and the main character runs a home for girls who have aged out of foster care." I said, "NO WAY!"

In truth, we've not heard of a lot of places who do quite what we do. So we sure didn't know there was a novel with a setting in a place like this! (If you want to read it, it's called Save the Date by Jenny B. Jones.) 

Jenna wrote back to say "The girls home is called Saving Grace in the book. And then at the end, the author's notes say this: 'Becky Shaffer, creator and mama of the real Saving Grace, for reaching out to young women without parents, without homes, without hope. You're changing lives, hearts, and family trees, and I stand in awe of all you've come through and all you give back.'"

WHAT? It's a real home with a Becky Shaffer working there??

Of course I went straight to Instagram to check out everything about Saving Grace and Becky Shaffer. And that's where I learned Becky is a nickname for...Rebekah. 

THE SAME WAY I SPELL MINE!

Stop it. Just stop it. 

So I did the only natural thing I could do. I sent Becky Shaffer a message. Had to tell her I'm Bekah Shaffer and I work a similar job and...oh yeah...I'm a Rebekah too. 

I sat back to wait, because I realized how wackadoodle that could sound coming from a complete stranger. But a short time later she answered with the most gracious message and even offered to talk with me over the phone sometime to talk about our two similar-yet-not-matching ministries.

See, for all the crazy, weird, hurtful stuff that can come about because of social media, blogs, and all the internet stuff, it can also be an amazing place for making connections with people we would never otherwise meet.

So thanks, my friends. Thanks for being part of my 5000 story snippets. Thanks for being here for this one today. Thanks for being a piece of my story. 

Here's to 5000 more!