I just had to share this...

Today I found a "stress-test" in a book I was reading.  The test listed out a variety of factors that cause stress in your life, and had the premise that if you scored over 300 points in any single year, you were vulnerable to illness.  These factors encompassed changes that can happen in a year - from moving to graduating to marrying to financial situation to deaths to divorce to law violations to personal conflicts, etc., etc., etc.

Out of curiosity I added up my total from this point last year to the present time.

388.

So I added up Josh's total.

540.

We had a good laugh over that - apparently, we are both extremely vulnerable to illness and Josh in particular should have had a meltdown.  And wedding planning and finals and job hunting weren't even on the list.

We're taking it as funny, and I'm not looking for sympathy.  In my opinion, it's been a great year.  But I fully agree that even though all the changes have been good, they've also been incredibly stressful, and I think a good point stands:

We are always ready to support those who have had bad changes in their lives.  We bring flowers, lift them up in our prayers, and write encouraging notes.

Those who are undergoing happy changes are generally expected to be happy, and can generally find a lot less support and encouragement.  I practically had panic attacks as I reached the end of my last semester (finals AND house-hunting AND job-hunting AND wedding planning was a bit too much), but it seemed that anytime I demonstrated anything less that pure excitement and joy, others questioned whether I was doing the right thing.  Or they would tell me that my life was so good that I had no right to complain.

Obviously, our community has supported us (although there were an enormous difference in support from our older friends who have been through our experience and our younger friends who have not).  Y'all have been great, and our successful navigation through the year is no doubt due to your continued prayers and support. But I just want to make the point again:  watch out for the "happy" changes in people's lives as well as the "bad" ones.  Chances are, they're just as stressed, but don't feel free to express those fears and doubts.