Update on Life and This I Believe essay

So this month has been full of changes for my household. On August 5th, for the first time in 4 years, I went back to work. I returned to where I left 4 years ago and am thankful they took me back.

K is having some issues with it but she knows I'm doing it to better our lives. Because she knows this, and is reminded frequently, she is attempting to be okay with it. We make the most of our time together when we get it, snuggle when we can, and make due when we can't. It's an adjustment but it will be good for us.

Peridot, aka Peri

Another change is we now have a new cat. Yes, for those counting at home, that makes number FIVE!!! Hubby rescued him from the parking lot at our work. So far none of the other animals are comfortable with him nor him with the others. That's okay though. I fully believe that they will at least learn to tolerate each other.

The last change that's happened is again about me. As of this past Monday, I am back in college!! I am pursuing my A.A.S. for Paralegal. I hope to be done in 2 years but it might take a bit longer if the classes are competitive to get into. I'm also taking all the ASL classes that I can get into. It won't count as a double major since I don't plan to take the other courses that would go along with majoring in ASL, however I would love to become fluent and maybe take some of the interpreter specific classes as well. I believe this would be a marketable skill. Even just at the retail store where I work it would be marketable. I had a group of 3 come through my line last night that was deaf. The smile they gave me when I was able to sign "good night" to them (i forgot what the sign for "have" is) was so awesome!!!!!

Image found via Google. I do not own it.

Anyway, so I'm going back to school and my English Comp instructor assigned us to write our own "This I Believe" essay. I wrote mine on the craptasticness that happened last year. Not because I especially wanted to relive it a year and a half later but because she wanted what we believe and she wanted it to be personal to us. I believe in God and that situation made that take a firm root in my life where before it was there but it didn't affect me day-to-day.

So, if you're interested, here is my essay titled "My Personal Path to Peace"

My Personal Path to Peace

     I have always believed in God and was raised in the Christian Church. However, this never translated into much when it came to my everyday life or how I handled what I considered to be big things. That is until an actual big thing happened in the lives of my family. 

     April 26, 2013 will forever be known to me as the day everything changed. Prior to that day, we were your typical blended family. We had “baby mama drama” (the “baby” being 13 at the time), my husband went to work, our two kids went to school, we had visitation with his oldest, everything was normal. Even that day started out fairly normal. I was in Yellow Springs, Ohio shopping with my stepson’s mother (okay so maybe was not totally normal) when I got a text message from my husband. Our five year old daughter told him that his oldest child, my stepson, molested her. We were floored! How could this have happened? We did all of the appropriate things; we called the county sheriff, we took her to get checked out at the hospital, she spoke to a social worker, and we took her to get counseling. 

Through all of this, I relied on God like I never had before. Sure, I questioned Him and railed against Him, but through it all He was my strength to get through the meetings and counseling sessions that followed. Through this horrible event, I learned that I cannot handle things on my own. I have to let go of things that I cannot control and allow God to do his thing.

There is a beautiful peace that comes when you realize that you do not have to handle everything on your own. To know that it is perfectly okay to be carried, as in the Footprints poem. My prayer is that one day everyone could experience this peace, preferably without the life-altering and traumatic event taking place. I believe that the world would be so much better if only we would simply allow ourselves to be carried by God.