Mrs. Lizzie Norris and James

Name: Mrs. Lizzie Norris

Husband: Lee Norris

Marital Status: Married, husband currently incarcerated

Children: James, 8 and in his 3rd year of homeschooling

Favorite Scripture Verses: I have so many.

Lamentations 3:23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

My Story

My story starts as a fairy tale. My husband and I had a perfect first year of marriage. He and I compliment one another in gifts, talents, personalities, strengths, weaknesses. I was the happiest girl on the planet.

As our second year of marriage progressed, things weren’t quite right. Sometimes it wasn’t easy to identify. Just odd things and feelings I had.

God blessed us with a precious little boy 2 1/2 years into our marriage. He is truly the most precious little boy I’ve ever had the privilege to meet. And I get to be his mom! I am so blessed. His birth was long and hard and rough, and he was emergency transferred to a NICU. We were unsure for many hours that he would even live. Thankfully, he is perfectly healthy. His hard start changed who I am as a mother. I pay more attention to little things. I am often reminded that he very well could have left us and I am so blessed that God allowed him to live.

I thought that with a son to be responsible for, my husband would “grow up” and put us first. He didn’t. I can’t really explain the heartache that realization caused me. He put himself first all the time.  Over the next years, parts of me died. I felt like nothing I could do would change anything so I began to not care.

God brought me out of that and I began to read and study and pray. I decided with the Lord’s help I would fight for my husband and my marriage. I knew I had to release everything and give our marriage and future to God. I remember standing in the kitchen asking God for strength to let go as tears poured down my face. Giving this to God was an incredibly hard sacrifice. Very shortly after that day, the phone rang.

It was a nice afternoon and I had just laid my toddler down for a nap. The phone call was odd. The man refused to leave a message. If it were for a job interview or was a friend, he’d surely have left that information with a wife right? Something cold and hard began to gnaw in my stomach. I turned on the computer and googled his name. Then I knew. He was a detective and my world came crashing down.

For some reason, God didn’t give me freedom to tell my husband what I knew. We have talked about this. If I had told him, we’d have hired a lawyer. My husband wouldn’t have talked. Maybe now he’d be home. Sometime, I dearly wish I had told my husband it was a detective. Yet, I knew then that he couldn’t have a chance to make excuses. I knew God wanted him to face the consequences of his actions. Even now, we know that God had to break my husband and bring him to the end of himself.

My husband “sang”. You may not know that spilling your guts to the police doesn’t help your legal case. Yet, spiritually, my husband had to. God required that of him. I waited many days to find out what happened. My husband didn’t know that I knew.

How did I find out? Well, one Sunday afternoon, the phone rang again and the man who had previously refused to leave his name said, “I’m detective So and So. Please tell Lee that he is cleared from any other crimes.” If you have never been in this situation, I don’t know how to explain it. It is a solid reminder to you that your life is no more in your hands. You realize that your hopes and dreams are gone. You know that whatever may happen down the road, it doesn’t matter what you hoped for or what your opinion is.

We entered a 16 month waiting period before the court date. These were many of the hardest days of my life. Yes, he was home. He brought home his check. He was daddy to our son. Yet, our marriage was in so much trouble. I was so upset at him for doing this to us. I was angry with God. I stood in the kitchen were I had previously given my husband and marriage to God. I clenched my teeth and said, “GOD! when I give you something it’s not supposed to turn out like this.” I think I stamped my foot. Maybe that’s foolishness, but all I could see was that I had sacrificed my hopes and dreams to lay them on an altar for God and my world had fallen apart.

I didn’t know all the twists and turns that lay ahead. (I still don’t.)

I didn’t know that God was using each piece of this puzzle to work on both of us. I didn’t know that God was using this to answer prayers I had prayed for many years.

I couldn’t know what a wonderful love he was going to restore in my husband’s heart for me.

I didn’t know.

I am not God. He did not make a mistake.

About Me

I love to read. I’m privileged to be able to homeschool my precious little boy.

I play the piano. I scrapbook. I pretend to knit. I like to joke. I am exhausted. I don’t like being a single mom.

I do not enjoy court dates, the “system”, parole officers, or prison visits. I am surprised by much of what I’ve learned about all of this.

I care very much about character and integrity. I value God’s Word and what it teaches us about every aspect of living.

I desire to raise my son to be a godly man. I care about issues pertaining to boys and men. I do not like how men are treated in our society, but aside from raising my little precious, I’m not sure what God would have me to do in that regard right now.

I am looking to Jesus to help us finish this course he set us on. I pray that he will find us faithful.

Our Lives Today

Today, Lizzie and James are home, trusting in the LORD to provide for them and keep them in Him. Lizzie provides for and home schools James and lives as a single mother, yet she is still wife to Lee. She and James await the day when Lee will be reunited with them in their home, and they can live together as a family again. Until this time, Lizzie relies on support from her church and the Body of Christ.

Lizzie Norris is a married mom of one little boy, living as a single mom while her husband is incarcerated. Through the difficulties, she is learning to trust God and His WORD. Lizie blogs encouragement, transparency and love at A Dusty Frame. You can support Lizzie through the ChipIn on her GTH page and also through her Etsy shop, A Dusty Attic.

Please keep Lee in your prayers also, as he is incarcerated, living and serving God as best he can. He has many things yet to overcome, and the whole family needs your prayers.

Contribute to Lizzie and James

To contribute to Lizzie and her family, please use this handy ChipIn. Mrs. Norris appreciates all of your donations. Every dollar you give is an answer to prayer. Thank you for your love and kindness.

You can get your own ChipIn widget to support Mrs. Norris and her son by clicking on the COPY button on the widget. If you would like to use the widget above, you may copy the code to use on your site. If you would like to design a different size or color of widget, then when it changes, you will click on the “More Options”. This will take you to a page you can customize your widget if you would like to. . You can customize the widget for your website or blog. *please let us know if you experience problems using this ChipIn*

Please share the word about Lizzie by wearing the “supporting” icon on your website or blog! Simply highlight the text below and copy/paste onto your site.

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Welcome, Mrs. Lizzie Norris, to GTH

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