Showing posts with label divorce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label divorce. Show all posts

Monday, March 28, 2011

Sssittt downnn and lishen, I'm talkn boud divorss (and I ha had a margrita!! haaaaa!)

     I am a divorcĂ©.   Oh the horror, gasp, no way, OMG!  There was a time in my early years of being married that I was very judgmental toward people that did not "honor their commitment to marriage!" Wow how those kind of stupid "holier than thou" thoughts have come back to bite me in the butt!!!

     I was married for almost 7 years when a week before our 8th anniversary, my husband moved out.  Now I'm sure that you all are just dying to hear that story, (right) but suffice it say that it happened very suddenly and I not only lost my husband, but my best friend (you get my drift???).  To say that it was horribly devastating, heartbreaking and traumatic, is at best, and understatement.  I remember the moment that I learned why they call it a "broken heart", and why someone could drive off of a cliff because of it.  This was the person that I had committed my life to, the man I thought I would grow old with, the man I built my life around!  Thank God I was lucky enough to have the support of my loving family, my friends, my God and it was because of their love that I made it through this horrible process.

     What I want to talk about though, is what I learned from it all...not everything, because that would take days!!!  I have had the chance to talk to loads of women who have gone through the same thing;  The heartbreak is about the same but the major difference is how we come out of it in the end.  I'm super competitive and I think at the end of it all, this



So I have to admit to something. I fully realize that I just stopped mid sentence but I was trying to write this in the middle of my day with the kids running around all crazy like. I have now had dinner, a margarita and the kids are taking a bubble bath. Not alone people! Sheesh I'm not totally inept as a parent.   Anyway, the advice could get really good now, after a margi, even though I may regret what I'm saying in the morning.. Now back to that amazing advice I was about to give you....



     See, what I learned is that I can sit around for days, months or even years and feel sorry for myself.  I   could wallow in self pity, sulk and bore everyone with the details for years on how "my x this, and my x that".  Wouldn't that be productive! I'm sorry, but to be totally honest, I talked to so many women who gave their exes that kind of power over them for years, lots of years, and I was determined to NOT be one of them. Seriously, I had every right to be bitter and angry but then who still has the power over me?  He would have!   Call me crazy, but that was the last thing I wanted to give him was more power!!!  Let me be totally clear,

If you stay angry or bitter...you are the only one that will suffer!  


     I started hanging out with my sweet husband much before I ever even thought it was a good idea. He was just a friend, really people!  Let me just be clear...this is not part of my "advice"...I'm not suggesting to anyone in this situation that you date right away and marry the first guy that comes along without years of healing; but for me it was right.  (one other thing I have stopped being judgmental about!) For sure there were times when my past snuck in like a punch in the face, but again I had to remind myself..."do I give my x that kind of power over me??".  For me the answer was always  NO. I had a very hard time trusting, but my husband is NOT my x!  Life is scary and unpredictable. "it" could happen to me again, but do I live in fear?  Do I let my past dictate my future? Heeeellll noooooooooooo!  I look at my husband and praise God for letting him be the man I get to share my life with.  I look at my kids, amazing, beautiful little faces and weap at the thought that they would not be ours if I would have been too scared to move on!  We just celebrated 8 years of marriage and I love him more than I did when I married him!

     We all have the crap from our past that scares us into paralysis...whether it's abuse from a parent, someone abandoning you, death, or like me divorce, and I certainly don't want to insult anyone or in anyway oversimplify any of these traumas, but at the end of the day, it's up to you. Are you going to give that asshole person from your past control over how you choose your future?  Or are you going to be brave, take a leap of faith and jump? That doesn't mean be unwise, but it does mean to do your best to trust and move on. Could you get hurt again? Yup! Should that keep you from being brave and trying? Nope! You survived lady!!!! now get off the couch and go live!  Let your past give you streingth because you are wiser, and more resilient.  Life is waiting, be brave and live!  (or I will come to your house and give you a good dose of Gena drill sergeant!...too much?  Must be the margi speaking!)











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Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Adopted dreams...My journey...



 Todays post is a little longer than normal, but it is a story of the last 10 years of my life, slightly condensed…It’s still only a 4 min read, so hang in there till the end.

      When I was a little girl, my dream consisted of the yellow house with the white picket fence, handsome husband and 2.5 kids.  I would stay home and lovingly attend to the needs of the little family we created together….bla bla bla…  Well as we all know, life is not a fairy tail, and dreams don’t always come true.  It all started to unravel when it began to sink I that the man I married really didn’t want kids (thought I could change his mind after marriage, ya dumb!) and suddenly my 8-year marriage ended in divorce.  The dream, gone. (that’s the abbreviated version; but lets just say I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy!)
     But praise the Lord (literally) my life quickly took a turn in an amazing direction when I met and married the man, this time, that I was meant to be with…I’ll tell you that story someday, but this day is about what happened next.  We had a beautiful home, minus the picket fence (I don’t really like those anyway) and then according to the plan, it was time for kids.  We started practicing (that’s what we called “it”) and after a couple of years of not being able to get pregnant, we did what any logical couple would do; we carried around sperm in a cup and a Dr. using a “turkey baster” was brought in to replace my sweet husbands role in the attempt to conceive.  Fun.   I won’t even go into all the girls that we had talked to about adopting their children (including the one that had a late term abortion, heartbreaking!!!) Its hard to really express how difficult it is to have such a desire for children and not be able to make it happen, so I’m not going to even try…Lets just say it’s a rollercoaster full of crazy heart ache!!! 
     It all changed the day Lindsay followed her heart and called to tell me about a young girl that she had just met that was looking for a family to adopt her unborn baby girl.  It would take a book to tell the entire story, but I’ll just say it was a journey full of miracles, and our little angel was born a short 5 weeks later.
     Our baby girl was 3 when we had once again given up the dream for more children and decided to be content and done with one…she was after all more than we could have ever dreamed!! But about a month after making this decision, we received yet another call from someone possibly looking for a family. Honestly we have talked to enough girls to be totally over doing this even one more time, but we were compelled.  Two weeks later, our baby boy was born.  Miracle #2!!!!!!
     It’s difficult for me to contain this story in just a few paragraphs, and maybe at some point I’ll be able to tell parts a little more completely.  What I am finding, is that it is hard for a lot of people to understand adoption…I don’t have all of the answers but I want to just give you a few things to consider when trying to relate to families who have adopted.  These points are my opinion only, but I do think that other parents of adopted kids would feel the same… 
image
First of all, 
Please!!!! Do not feel sorry for me!!!!!!  I did not squeeze my children out of a tiny hole in my body, but that does not make them any less a part of us!  Honestly, I feel kinda sorry for my friends whose bodies carry the “scars” of 9 months of torture!  (they gladly except them, I know) I treasure my children because they are miracles, made for us just as much as biological children are. 
If you ever wonder if someone’s kids are adopted, don’t ask. Simply tell them how beautiful they are and they will tell you if they want.  Our kids are just as smart as not adopted kids and a 5 year old will know if people are always asking because they don’t look like their parents. 
Please don’t tell me “oh that’s so neat that you did that!”  We do not go to the pound and pick out the scrawniest looking kid with the saddest eyes.  Most parents are probably not trying to save the world; we are just making our families outside of a bedroom, and honestly it’s a process much harder than you would ever dream!    
And I know people with the BEST OF INTENTIONS say this one but it  kinda hits a nerve….“oh I want to do that someday, or I’ve always wanted to do that!”  (I don’t not like you if you have ever said that to me ;) a lot of people do!) Thats great if you do, really it is!  But you don’t  just call up someone and order up a child because you feel like it.   I don’t know an adoptive parent that doesn’t suffer YEARS of heartbreak in the process.  And until you go through it, it’s hard to understand the difficulties…Sorry, I sound like a jerk, It’s just impossible to explane…


Never ask us;
How long have you had her?
 Is she from here?
How much did they cost?
Are your kids siblings? (of course they are! Sheesh!)
 Can her parents take her back?
I do get asked these things!!!  If we want to tell you, we will. Sometimes I do, gladly (I’m very open) but sometimes I like to let it go at “your children are beautiful” ! and I simply get to say “thank you!” (By the way, they are!!!)


I hope that you will never know the pain in not being able to fully celebrate the birth of your child with your husband or family because immediately a birth mom is grieving her loss.   Or the torture of waiting for her to sign paperwork, praying that she will go through with it, and knowing she could change her mind and you can walk away empty handed, to an empty nursery and empty crib!  Having a child disappear after months of waiting, or never having a child after years in the system.  It is heartbreaking. 
You may never know what it feels like to drive a precious birth mom home and leave her standing in an empty living room, then drive off with “her” child!  That is true heartbreak!   I’ve done it twice.
I think we just want people to understand that adoption is a difficult process, it cant be simplified, but at the end of the day, our children are no less “ours” than biological children…
This is just a tiny glimpse into my journey, and I really hope it sheds a little light into some of the struggles, and joys of adopting.