I am so excited to share layouts made with Sonja by Claudi Designs.

 I made the first layout for the Faith Sisters Inspiration Challange “Restoring My Soul“. I really debated on sharing something so “private” but it was the first thing that came to mind when I read the suggested theme. So I took that as a sign that one of the steps the Lord wants me to take toward “Restoreing My Soul” is sharing my life experiance. Even if just a little.

Journaling

As a child I have been through and/or seen my mother go through every form of abuse you can imagine. Some I hope you can’t. I grew up in the worst neighborhoods and went to terrible schools.  As a matter of self preservation, at the age of thirteen, after a long stay in the  hospital, I built a mental wall, blocking out almost my entire childhood. I remember that things happened to me, I remember what happened, but I no longer remembered the specific details of the various events. I no longer cared about anything.  During my teen years I “had issues”. It was only by the grace of God that I did not wind up in jail or dead in an alley.

Eventually I met a man who was like not other, the same man that became your father. He worked hard to tear down my wall. He taught me to laugh, I learned to love again. Yet, there has always been a part of me that remains unseen. The shadows, still linger there.

When the Lord brought you into my life, I thought he wanted me to help you. While our situations were not the same, you too had a very difficult beginning. In all the world I knew, there were few who could understand you as I do.I knew I could help you through. There was still time to save you.

Little did I know that was not all God had  planned. To help you, I  have had to face my own demons that lay buried deep inside. I soon realized that was God’s plan all along.

He gave me to you and you to me and we became family.
I thought I was saving you, all the while you were saving me.

It is a long hard road ahead, but we will walk together.

Need more information on child abuse?

 Click here Child Welfare Information Gateway

The layouts below are of photos taken during a camping trip to Colorado Bend State Park. 

For today’s freebie, I made you a template inspired by the my layouts above. I work in PSPx2, but usually save my templates to PSD format as well. For some reason this time, the program wanted to merge all the layers when I tried to save in PSD format. If anyone knows what might cause this, I would appreciate it if you could let me know. Thanks :0) Click here to download.

The following layouts were very easy to make. I just kept flipping and mirroring the images to get four different looks!