New Beginnings

The last few years of my life have been...transformational.

When I was younger I always said I wanted to wait til I was 30 to get married and have kids.  I figured, based on my vast knowledge of the world in terms of relationship success at the ripe age of 18ish, that is what it took to have a successful marriage.  I just knew that if you found someone whose company you greatly enjoyed, ensured you had gotten all of your wild oats sewn during your 20s, and established yourself in your career, your marriage would have no problems!  Easy peasy...  Now, I wasn't stupid!  I was well aware that marriage took work.  I knew, and said often, that I was prepared for the hard times that inevitably came with marriage.  It's one thing to say it, it's an entirely other thing to live through it.  As a matter of fact, I remember sitting in our pre-marriage session with our priest and answering questions.  He asked, "What makes you two think this marriage is going to work?"  Our answer was, "Well, we've been together a long time, we love each other, we don't really fight, and we both feel we've done everything right that you are supposed to do before you get married."  Ha...  That statement alone was probably the beginning of what could have been the end of us.  Anyhow, I digress.  Back to the transformational years I go...

I am beginning a blog today because I have recently been told by quite a few people that they have enjoyed my blurbs on facebook and would love to read more.  You see, I find writing therapeutic.  I have a popular defense mechanism where I use humor to hide my pain.  It works pretty well and entertains my friends in the process.  Win/Win!  So, I went ahead and started the blog today.  I don't really know where to start, so I figured I'd start with what was so transformational about my last few years.  To be fair, it's kind of my last ten years that were transformational, but I didn't know it til recently.  It wasn't until January 2012 that I realized just how jacked up my life had been getting when I left my husband.  Since marrying Mark on October 24, 2009, I've been through an almost divorce, separation, financial crises, job change, marriage restoration, friendship crises, family crises, faith losing, faith finding, infertility problems, pregnancy, and most recently motherhood.  This list is just the tip of the ice burg, so I am certain I have no shortage of blogging material.  The least of which is our now 6 week old son's Down Syndrome diagnosis we received when I was 17 weeks pregnant.

Right at this moment, I am sitting on my couch typing away, my husband, Mark, is holding our baby boy Benjamin while playing a football video game, and my two dogs are lazily snoring on the floor.  Our life is quite blessed.  However, who has ever received a blessing without first doing the work and experiencing the pain required to receive and appreciate it?  I know I haven't.  I know that there are many more peaks and valleys I will experience throughout the rest of my life, but I can't help but feel like I have been through it all at this point.  Looking at my baby boy resting in my husband's lap, I know I can conquer anything and will come out better for it on the other side.  Mark and I may not have been through it all at this point, but we will have Ben through it all from here out, and he is worth any amount of pain. 

Here's to the beginning of my stories!!!