Ten YEARS
a decade of change.
2014 my husband left (after 22 years) & I got divorced and it launched us off on a roller coaster ride… I CANNOT believe it has been 10 years.
That seemed like a lifetime away, at the time I went through it.
Here’s a brief history of what’s happened since August of 2014.
•Moved 6 times, 3 States, 5 Cities
•Worked 10 jobs
•Got RE-married
•Graduated 3 kids
•Married off 2 of those
•Had multiple life-changing and life threatening health issues, illnesses or accidents.
•Faced Homelessness
•Lost “everything” financially TWICE and have had to start completely over twice!
Just when I thought I’d be nearing retirement, and traveling and owning a house, having money in the bank, here I am again, like I was when I was in my 20’s. Broke.
•My kids mental health & suicide attempts.
•I have had 13 close friends or family members die. (4 in the last 15 mos)
•Walked away from my faith & God for a brief time- But came back, because there’s no place I’d rather be.
•Multiple other crises’ (criseses? Crisis’ Idk lol) that have taken their toll.
It’s hard not to wonder sometimes (especially *during* the difficult seasons) “If my husband had never left, would my life had been this hard?”
Obviously I can’t go back and change it. And I don’t think that people dying, or things with my kids would have been any different.
Maybe I would have a house and better financial stability… but I also know I would not have the career I have, or impacted the number of people I have in a positive way, if he had stayed.
I know for a fact, while I maybe would not have walked away from God in the first place, the way I did, (who knows maybe I would have, but I doubt it) I would not know how SWEET and amazing the Love and Forgiveness of Christ actually is.
Without facing, health emergencies, financial crisis, homelessness etc. I would not know how incredibly blessed and highly favored I am.
I have faced a season of “Job” that I could never have anticipated. BUT- I am blessed because of it.
So to quote him…
Job 1:21 ESV
“And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’”