Yesterday I took a 4 hour nap. And it’s a good thing I did because we were up until 2:30 am scouring through piles of important papers and documents. At 11:00 pm we realized my social security card was missing and we need it for our meeting with the mortgage lender on Monday. So to our closet of unfiled mail and miscellaneous important things we went!

Random things we found in the process:
1. A rotten apple in a bag from a conference we attended in October.
2. The missing title from our car we sold in September.
3. My Bible.
4. A book I started reading several months ago but couldn’t finish because it was “lost.”
5. Tax documents and W2s we needed from 2012 (yay!!)
6. Letters from my Compassion International sponsored child who just turned 18.
7. Old Ulster stuff.
8. Christmas cards we never sent (sorry loved ones!)
9. A Christmas package we never sent to Ireland.
10. Not my social security card.

Now that is an embarrassing list! Not a proud moment in our lives to say the least. As a couple we definitely have our strengths and weaknesses. We are full of good ideas and the best of intentions, but sometimes we lack a little thing called follow through. So why am I admitting these things to you?

Bold vulnerability. It’s a concept I learned when I was in college. Being vulnerable with ourselves, and especially with others, often leads to strength. Vulnerability is a great equalizer – it keeps us humble while allowing us the strength to rely on others and grow. As I recently read in an article, “Without vulnerability, we exist in a state of feeling better than or less than our counterparts, and that’s no way to build a family or an empire.”

So I am admitting my weakness in hopes of finding strength. We are on the cusp of a new chapter in our lives and old habits die hard, but they must be laid to rest. As I move forward, I WILL be more organized (at this point I really can’t be any less organized)! Even in my frustration in the wee hours of the morning, I was able to count my blessings. I have a husband who is willing to sift through piles and piles of papers to help me find something lost. And not complain. I have a mother who looks out for me and produced my social security card at 1:00 am (after 2 hours of us looking!) which had been in her safe the whole time. And I have the grace to accept my shortcomings and find room to grow.