Just a quick reminder: the Day 40 blog giveaway is still ongoing through 9:00 pm ET this evening! Check it out and be sure to enter if you haven’t had a chance to do so yet!

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I’ve frequently written about the 9th. It’s always been our special day each month. Chris and I married on an August 9th. But, we celebrated our marriage anniversary on EVERY 9th. Most of the time it was just in small ways, but it always included us watching our wedding video and him giving me flowers. Always. Always. Always.

Five days after Chris died, I experienced my first 9th. It happened to be the day after I buried his shell (on Mother’s Day). The house was full of flowers, so I didn’t really miss his flowers just yet, and my mind was too warped to even comprehend the fact that I wasn’t watching our wedding video.

My second 9th without the love of my life (in June) came with a kiss from heaven. I received flowers from someone that had no idea what the day was but just felted prompted to bring them to me. I knew then that the Holy Spirit had written my name across her mind, and she delivered something more precious to me than she could have possibly known.

July 9th found me at out favorite place, the beach. I drove my sister-in-law down there for the day. We happen to live about 5 hours from the beach, but she lives in Kansas and had never seen the ocean with her own eyes before. Since they were in NC visiting, I knew we couldn’t wait another day – she had to see it! It was a bittersweet day. My heart ached for my true love that day – more than ever!

The next month would have marked our REAL anniversary…in honor of our blessed wedding and the precious vows we exchanged. August 9th for me this year was not only the hardest 9th I’ve had to endure since Chris’ death, but it was also one of the hardest days for me, in general. But, through all the pain and the buckets of tears, I felt loved immensely. God held me tight that day!

September 9th was lonely. It was another dark day for me.

October 9 found me in New Jersey and later on a flight home from Philadelphia. It also brought an interesting “heart to heart” talk with the Lord. I cried that 9th too, but God began a new type of healing on my heart. I could literally feel it.

And yesterday…my most recent 9th without Chris. I thought about him constantly. I received an anonymous gift of flowers on my front porch with a “Happy Anniversary” card. I loved them! I tell people all the time that cards and flowers are my “love language”. 🙂 But, the most incredible miracle occurred. I never cried yesterday. I was sad but not overwrought with sadness. I was lonely but not overtaken with loneliness. It was a good day. A freeing day. A healing day.

Now, I know that December 9 could be completely different, but I’m thankful for the gift of today. It was a refreshing walk along Grief Road.

We’re here friends. The end of my 40-day consecutive blog writing journey. I can’t believe I’m going to actually say this, but out of the 3 times that I’ve done a 40-day journey like this – I do believe this one to be the easiest! Yes…you heard me right! Out of one of the most chaotic times of my life, I’ve found this to be very therapeutic and joy-filled. So, where do I go from here?

I don’t want to make promises I’ll have trouble keeping, but I will tell you my blogging goal from this point forward. My GOAL is to blog Monday through Friday. Yes – it’s simply a goal. I’m not going to hold my perfectionistic self to that standard as a rule, because I’ll fail…for sure. And, then I’ll disappoint myself. So, it’s goal. I’ll do the best I can and simply leave it at that.

To end this 40th post on a fun note…I have a giveaway to announce!

It’s not too hard to see that I’m all about making memories. An avid scrapbooker, it’s always been a passion of mine, but with my husband’s death, I’m even more bent (if that’s possible) on preserving memories, hence my Chris Tree project, among other things.

Very recently, I was introduced to My Memories, the #1 rated scrapbook software. For those of you not into scrapbooking, don’t look the other way just yet. You just might be surprised! As a paper scrapbooker for years, I’ve been hesitant to even try digital scrapbooking. It just seemed to take the creativity out it for me. But, I said that – assumed that – without even trying a digital scrapbooking program. Until now…

My Memories gives you the ability to simply pop in your digital pictures into an already pre-designed template if you lack the time or creative juices to try anything else. That’s a perfect solution for busy people that want to capture photo memories in a creative format (like a scrapbook) but don’t have the know-how or drive to do so.

However, My Memories also offers the ability to create your own design. Simply start with a blank slate – of various size pages – and, be as creative as your mind allows! Here are two of my own “start from scratch” creations:

Friends, these were sooooo easy to make – trust me! And, they weren’t even from a template! With My Memories, you can not only create digital scrapbook pages, but you can also do cards, calendars, photobooks, etc. So many possibilities! Now that I’ve gone on and on about this software…let me tell you about the giveaway.

The folks at My Memories have donated one free My Memories Suite (a $40 value) for me to giveaway on my blog. You actually have a couple of opportunities to enter, but you can’t do #2 without doing #1:

1) First of all, please visit My Memories and then come back here and leave a comment telling me your favorite digital paper pack or scrapbooking kit.

2) Either start following My Memories Suite on Twitter by clicking here or “Like” their Facebook page by clicking here – OR do both! After doing so…come back and leave a SECOND comment telling me you’ve done so. This will get you entry #2 in the giveaway.

That’s all there is to it! The giveaway will run today and through 9:00 pm ET Thursday. The winner will be announced on Friday’s blog post. Be sure to enter and share the giveaway with your friends.

There will only be one winner, but I’ll also announce on Friday a huge discount opportunity for anyone that doesn’t win and chooses to still purchase the software or anything from the My Memories store. So, be sure to check back on Friday!

Thank you for taking part in this 40-day consecutive blogging journey with me! It would have been very lonely without you! Let’s continue the journey together…shall we?