Couldn't even muster a goodbye, could you?

Dear Mother,

                  I just turned 35, I am sure you would know that if you had remembered my birthday. At this point in my life I thought I had finally given up on you and gotten over the resentment, hurt, and bitterness that I have for you, but I don't know if I ever will. I believe the reason I will never get over this is because I am a mother now. I don't see how you gave up on your child before you even knew her, I don't see how you pretend that my life was ever anything normal after the people who raised me died, I don't see how you denied me the chance to say good bye to those people knowing good and well how much I loved them and how much they loved me. I also fail to see how you spend years trying to be my friend while I tried to be the adult because *someone* had to be. You put the fear of God into us that if we were honest about our home life that we would end up in worse places when you never wanted me anyway.

                My son is 8, at 8 I was never as free as he is. I was never a child, I never realized how much you truly took from me until he hit 8 years old. It kills me, It breaks my heart and at the same time I see how strong it has made me and I thank you. I thank you for not being there, I thank you for showing me that the only person in my world that I was able to truly rely on was myself, I thank you for telling me that you never wanted me and how my grandparents only raised me out of pity and never truly loved me because it showed me your character and that not only were you selfish, but you were also vindictive and gave no fucks about who you hurt. The most important thing I learned in the absence of your love was that I was loved, for 8 years I was important, I was loved and I was cared for. Even if it was only for 8 years, I was loved and that is something that every child should feel.

               For twelve years I believed I had a father who loved me, when you left and he stopped loving me you turned my world upside down in an attempt to make money off me by way of child support. You made me materialistic by promising me things I had never had like vacations and shopping sprees, at 12 I first felt hate, I hated you for that and I still feel horrible that you brought my possible father into my life and home and told me I had to pretend to not know because he didn't want me. you show up 20 some years later to tell me "he's dead" and walk out the door like it means nothing and then tell me that none of the testing ever happened even though I clearly remember it. You have played mind games with me my whole life in regards to my father and you still claim you don't know who he is.

               At 13, I was sexually assaulted by an adult that you trusted with me. I never told anyone until I was 33 years old. 20 years I held that secret because I couldn't trust you to believe me or even care. 20 years I lived in a dark hole and people wonder why I have depression and anxiety issues. When I finally did tell you, you brushed it off, like it meant nothing. I guess to you, it did mean nothing. I am sure it is hard to care about something that deep to someone when you hold so little regard for that person.

                 When my brother took the simple sibling arguments too far and physically abused me, broke my finger, choked me with a phone cord, poured beer on my head and called me every name in the book, I was always chastised for it. Your words were "stop antagonizing him". There is never an excuse for the things he did to me, there is no excuse for the fighting I had to do just to not be physically and verbally abused at the hands of my brother. You can blame his anger issues, but that is no excuse for what I endured and it only showed to prove that you cared more for him, his feelings and his issues than you did about me.

                 I have learned, despite the abuse, despite the neglect, and despite the loving, nurturing home that I should have had that I will be ok. I will survive anything that comes my way, and I will thrive in the face of adversity. I managed to make it through childhood, through adolescense, and through adulthood without you. I have been beaten, kicked when I am down, spit on, homeless, starving, and worse and I am still standing. I am still here and I am unbreakable. You do not get to take any credit for that, I did that. I made it through college and obtained a college degree, and I did that, you get no credit. I found a good job and fell into a family that loves me, I did that, not you.

                The only time I see you is when you need something or when some tragedy befalls this "family", we pretend like nothing has happened, we pretend we are happy and that we love each other, we put on the show we have been performing my whole life. We do this dance over and over and I can finally perform the steps without even thinking about it. Today I found out that you left for your new life in Colorado the same way I found out about your plan for this new life in Colorado, through Facebook. You are completely comfortable telling the world your plans before you even bother to tell your "daughter", you didn't even bother say good bye, you couldn't even muster a "good bye" text to your child. I am sure I will never hear from you again as long as you don't need money, I am sure I will get a text from one of your sons at some point after you pass and I can't even bring my self to promise that I will be there to say goodbye, because I am not sure it is worth my time or effort, plus, how do you say goodbye to someone who never wanted you?

                So, now its time for me to say Thank you. Thank you for reminding me on my 35th birthday that I can't rely on you to even do the minimum, that I can't expect people to love me or even like me, thank you for reminding me that my son is my world and that all he truly needs is my unconditional love and support, thank you for reminding me that I am resilient, and thank you for reminding me that I deserve better. I have gotten to a point in my life that I never thought I would be at. People see me and think "Look at her, she seems well adjusted, she must come from a decent family", I do, and that decent family has been in heaven for going on 27 years.

                Enjoy Colorado and I hope you finally outrun whatever it is that you're still running from, I hope it was worth the cost of my happiness and my well-being.

Has it really been a year since I have written here?

Hi There,

I have so much to say and not enough words to express my thoughts. I have always been better at free form writing so maybe just the fact that I am typing away will spark the words I need to express myself. I guess we will find out together......

Today is suicide prevention day, I am saddened by the fact that we need a day for this. We do enough killing of each other, we don't really need to kill ourselves off, yet, I really don't have much room to talk. I was minutes away from being a statistic myself.

I've spent my entire life being "Tender-Hearted", "Naive", "Giving", "Sensitive", "Loving" and any other word you want to attribute to me. I have been taken advantage of, hurt, beaten, broken, cheated, and bullied (not only by outsiders and acquaintances, but even by my own mother). Every time I got knocked down, I jumped up and dusted myself off and moved to the next person that I hoped would love me. Over the years I have learned to be *slightly* more protective of my heart and I've tried valiantly to stand up for myself. I never truly succeed at it but I keep trying. I have a habit of surrounding myself with people that I shouldn't. I am trusting, I always have been. I always believe that people have the most noble of intentions and then feel hurt and let down when I realize I, once again, am wrong.

Any logical human would think by now I would have noticed the signs and been able to stay away from people who want to hurt me, but nope. I am a fixer, I am a caretaker, I WANT to love, I WANT to help. I assume I will always be this way, I know.... I know.... all I have to do is stop putting my hand in the fire, it really isn't that easy.

I have known from an early age that I didn't belong with my family, I knew that I was never going to be one of them, I was never going to be good enough to be part of their club (I am not being pitiful here, it is simply the truth). The physical abuse I suffered at the hands of my brother was part of it, The fat shaming and bullying I suffered at the words of my mother was a part of it, losing what felt like the only people that cared for me at the age of 8 was another part, learning at the age of 12 that my whole life was a lie and I was never wanted by my mother was another part, being abandoned the minute I graduated high school, being homeless and stealing food as a teenager and young adult was another, Being a closeted bisexual and being afraid to tell anyone for fear of truly being abandoned by anyone remaining that I cared about and alone was another part, and the sexual abuse that I endured as a preteen and kept to myself until adulthood was yet another part of the puzzle that has formed who I am. My life has in so many ways been difficult, but I sit here today as a college graduate, a mother and a battle scarred warrior.

I spent so much time believing that I was worthless, that I was fat and lazy, that I was unworthy of anything (let alone love and affection). I married my high school boyfriend and neither of us knew what that entailed. He had his own struggles and had no idea what a successful relationship was supposed to look like, just like me. What do you get when you throw two kids who had to grow up too soon together and leave them out at sea? Chaos.

I can't fully blame my ex husband for our downfall, sure, he made some choices that lead to the end, but in all reality I was wrapped up in my pity. We both had our faults and we had no business getting married, we were children and had no idea what to do. We got married because we were supposed to. That's what you do, you date, you get married, you have kids.....right? Not quite. However, we have made the best out of a crappy situation because we didn't want to be our parents. We wanted a good life for our son. We didn't want him left broken and weathered like we had been.

We come to 2008, I was on the verge of divorce, I had a son that I didn't know how to support alone,  I felt like a true failure for the first time in my life, I was back living with someone who pretended to like me (even though I was constantly criticized and fat shamed) and I was truly lonely and scared. None of my friends were divorced so while the few friends I had tried to listen and be supportive, they couldn't truly put themselves in my shoes. I truly felt utterly, depressingly, and totally alone for the first time in my life. I had no feelings, I was numb, I was moving about my actions like normal, I smiled at people, I woke up and did what needed to be done, but I wasn't present, I wasn't actively participating in my life. I gained an additional 75 pounds and felt even more worthless. Looking back, I don't know how I made it out of bed daily, I guess I didn't really have a choice.

I decided one day that there was no point continuing, there was nothing left to do. Sure, my son would miss me, but he was so young that he would eventually be all right, plus he would have my life insurance and that would be enough to care for him, he still had his dad. (Jesus, this is hard to write and relive) I considered what my options were, I am a weenie so I didn't want pain, I just wanted to not wake up. I just wanted the pain to end, I just wanted to not hear any more criticism, I just wanted to finally be done. I had decided that my only option was an accident. I had to do it in a way that I couldn't control, a way that would be out of my hands so that I couldn't stop myself.

There were plenty of options, at the time I wasn't thinking about anyone else. I wasn't thinking of any of the other people that would be included or affected by my actions. Then I realized driving into traffic and causing an accident made no guarantee that I would die, that it would end. I started looking into bridges and ravines, I concluded that I didn't want to drown, so a river bridge was out of the equation, however a ravine would hopefully cause me to be unseen, so no one would save me. Also, maybe the car would just explode on impact so it'd be quick. That was it, I had made my decision. I spent two weeks planning and thinking, I went about my days in a fog, I was consumed. I hugged every loved one I came into contact with as if it was the last time, and avoided the ones I couldn't mentally say good bye to without giving myself away emotionally that something was up.

I chose a week when my son was at his dad's so that I wouldn't have to say goodbye to him. I wrote him a letter, I wrote a few more letters, and I got in my car and drove away. I put my phone on silent and in the backseat and I drove....... I drove around for about 3 hours trying to gather the courage to drive to the area where I planned on doing it.

I never made it there.


While driving, I started talking to myself, recounting out loud all the reasons I should just do it. I started to hear rebuttals to my "reasons", whether they were out loud or just in my head I will probably never know. I felt like someone was in my passenger seat talking it out with me, someone who couldn't have possibly been there because he died a long time ago. For the first time in years, decades, I didn't feel alone, I didn't feel helpless. I switched on the radio because I just felt like I should and I heard "you'll be alright, because when push comes to shove, you taste what you're made of. You might bend till you break, cause it's all you can take. On your knees you look up, decide you've had enough. You get mad, you get strong, wipe your hands, shake it off, then you stand......"

I pulled over, I cried, I sat in a park for an hour and a half in the dark crying, I then sat for 30 minutes in the dark just being quiet, just listening, listening to the quiet, I cried a bit more and waited for it all to pass.

I am not saying it was a ghost that stopped me, I am not saying it was divine intervention, I am not saying it was anything in particular. I don't know what stopped me, I don't know what made me turn on the radio, I don't know why that song hit me like it did, I don't know what happened that night.

All I know is that I am here today.


I cried when Robin Williams committed suicide, cried like a baby, I've never really been affected by a celebrity death until then. However, I knew what his last day was like to a certain point, I've been there, I have lived in that darkness.fortunately, I came out on the other end, I was lucky, not everyone can say that. I can say that I have had my moments in the last 7 years, I have had dark, dark moments, but I have never been alone. I have created a support system of my own. I have talked about my struggles, I tell people about my depression and anxiety disorders, I work on my moods and take time for me when needed. I talk about my suicide attempt in hopes that others know they aren't alone. I talk about my past, I talk about the scary stuff that no one quite understands unless they have been there. Most of all, I love, I still allow myself to see the best in the world and people (even when it is increasingly hard), I allow myself to believe that all people have good intentions. I believe in magic, in love, in the healing power of song, in the unexplainable. I believe in the world and I believe in my own heart, because that is what keeps me, well, me.

And I believe in "one more minute, one more hour, one more day" because it's never too late.

Please, If you feel alone, if you need help, if you just need to talk, even if you just need a hug or a hand to hold. I'm here, I've been there and I am here.

I still suffer from depression, regardless of how happy I look.

Depression sucks. It sucks your soul out. It makes you crazy. It takes everything you know and love and makes it dark, sad and worthless. Depression is something that despite how happy you look or feel can hit you at any minute. You can go to bed elated and wake up wanting to die, It is vicious and non caring, it takes and takes but never gives.

I have potentially always had depression, but I was not diagnosed until 2012. I had been laid off from my job, my relationship with my mother was shit, my family was pretty much non existent and I had no idea what I was going to do from there. I was unable to do little more than lay in bed and stay in my pajamas all day. No matter what I wanted to do that day, no matter how many plans I made the night before I just couldn't get moving the next day.

The worst part? I never knew when it would hit.

In our society, Depression, anxiety, bi-polar, schizophrenia, addiction and the like are all swept under the rug. They are diseases that are to be kept hidden and to be ashamed of having. Very few is said about them and therefore most people do not have any idea how devastating they can be, especially depression.

Depression is all encompassing, It's suffocating, and all you see if the darkness that it delivers and all you want is a moment of peace. A moment front he voices that tell you that you aren't good enough, that everyone would be better off without you, that you don't matter and are insignificant.

When I heard about Robin Williams today I cried, I cried for his kids, I cried for his wife, I cried for him and I also cried for me. I was lucky, My husband (who was mearly my live in boyfriend at the time) pulled me out of my depression. When I cried and tried to explain why I was crying he asked me "How did I pull you out?". It was a question I couldn't really answer, I just knew that he had pulled me out. I also know that currently he is very understanding when I have a "depression day" as I like to call them. If only everyone had someone that could pull them out, If only everyone COULD be pulled out......

I was lucky, Mr Williams was not, Lots of people daily are not......and that just breaks my heart and makes me cry whenever I hear of one of us losing the fight.

Just remember, you never know how dark it is in someone else's mind, you never know what they are thinking, you never know how bad they feel or what struggles they are dealing with. Be Kind. Be Loving.

I had the chance multiple times to end it all, I have heard the voices telling em that I am not good enough, that I am not needed, that I am not wanted, that I am alone....... I was lucky enough to beat those voices and be happy for the first time in my life.

Just because I am finally happy does not mean that it doesn't still affect me, I still have "depression days", I still hear the voices, I still have trouble getting out of bed some days, and I still hurt daily inside. I still pretend I am OK and happy, even when I am not, because I don't want my husband or son to worry, but I still suffer daily..... and I always will.

RIP Mr Williams. You were an inspiration and a great man, you made generations laugh and feel. You will take a piece of each of us with you and I pray that you found the peace you were looking for.

Sometimes you don't need a second chance, you just need a second family........

Family. This one word can elicit such a response for some people that they don't really know how to react to it. I am one of these people.......

It's no secret that I don't really speak to my mother, It's no secret that I don't know who my father is, and it is no secret that I have felt like an orphan since I was 8 years old and my grandma and grandpa Searles died. I lived with my mother and step father on and off, when I wasn't living with other family members (like my uncle or my cousin).

Until I was 8 I was secure in my family, there was my grandma, grandpa, mom, (the man I thought was my) dad, My brothers, a half brother (or what actually turned out later to be my step brother) and various other family members just like everyone else. December 19th, 1989 was the beginning of the end of that life for me, My grandmother had passed away almost exactly 2 months earlier and my grandfather gave up and followed closely behind. I watched him wither and die away at 8 years old, the man I was closest to, the greatest man I knew, my "dad" was gone. Within a short amount of time my mother left my father, who promised he would write and call and never did, when my mother had finally had enough of my heartbreak over the broken promises she finally told me that the man I had grown up believing was my father, was not in fact, my father. She didn't know who he was, she thought it was a man named Michael Callahan, or could have been someone named Larry. I have spent most of my life wondering who this man is, whether I looked like him, whether I had other brothers or sisters..... and then I learned that regardless of which man it was he was a deadbeat. Both of these men had children with other women, both of these men had abandoned their known children, what would they want with a child they didn't even know existed? And then came the day that my mother told me that she had found out that Michael had died a few years earlier, the answers I needed were buried, buried and gone, I would never know my father.

During my life I have allowed people into my life, people that I miss, people that I have had to let go of, people I have reconnected with and people that never deserved my loyalty or love. Most people that I had let into my life found ways to let me down, they found new and creative ways to hurt me, and I allowed them to do so. Just over three years ago I allowed a man into my life that finally showed me that I deserved better, I deserved to be treated with respect and to be treated like I mattered. I had allowed myself to be so beaten down and hurt and disrespected over the years that I felt like I didn't deserve much. I had allowed men to beat me, I had allowed them to cheat on me, I had allowed people to tell me I was worth less than others. Over the last few years I have been rebuilt from the ground up, I still have moments of weakness where I am insecure, but I am better. I honestly believe I deserve more, I believe that I deserve to be respected.

While I have put my biological family at a distance (due to the fact that I feel like I have been grossly mistreated by them), I have gained others in my "family" that I feel deserve to be here and deserve my loyalty. My wonderful fiancé came with two great kids (Connor and Eva) whom I love, a wonderful mother and father (Gail and Ron) who are not only great parents,  but also wonderful grandparents to 11 grandchildren, 3 sisters and brothers- in- law (Becky/Matt, Lisa/ Josh and Sarah/Jim) as well as 8 nieces (Claire, Hailey, Laila, Emery, Josie, Addie, Maybelline and Natalie) whom I love so very much (they all make me laugh and I love that each of them is so smart, sweet and talented in their own ways) as well as other family members who have also welcomed my son and I with open arms. I have reunited with a family that I left behind when I found out my father was not my father and it is as if no time has passed when I am with them, I have gained a brother and sister in law (Juston and Rachel) who always have my back, as well as a generous cast of others. Thank you to each and every one of you, I appreciate you so very, very much.

I also have found people in unusual places that I have taken into my heart and would do anything for, one of these is a teacher. I found Jim when I went back to college, at first I was convinced that he was going to be a pain in the butt and a real hard-ass and we would never get along, however, this man also changed my life. He taught me more than just business techniques, he taught me self esteem, he taught me about "protecting my elephant", as well as teaching me that I was capable of more than I believed I was. I sincerely want to thank you for that Jim, I appreciate you more than you will ever know.

And finally, Chris, what can I say? Thank you, thank you, thank you. Gratitude is not even a big enough word for what I feel for what you have done for me. I was in such a dark spot when you found me, I was just very good at hiding it and you found exactly where I was hiding it and you fixed me. You are the only person who has ever been able to even attempt that and there are not words enough to show you how much I appreciate that.

as I have sat here writing this, tears fill my eyes, I know just how lucky I am. I have never felt such love or gratitude and it overwhelms me daily and I just wanted you to know. Thank you and I love you. Sometimes you don't need a second chance, sometimes you just need a second family and I've been lucky enough to find that in each and every one of you.

525,600 minutes.....

          I finally brought myself to watch the memorial episode of Glee last night, as expected I ugly-cried all the way through it. I think the toughest part of it for me was when Finn's mom was cleaning out his room. She said "How do parents go on when they lose a child? You know, when I would see that stuff on the news I would just change the channel cause it was just too horrible to think, how do they wake up every day? I mean, how, how do they breathe? But you do wake up, and for just a second, you forget, and then, oh, you remember and it's like getting that call again and again, every time. You don't get to stop waking up, you have to keep on being a parent even though you don't get to have a child anymore...." (and even as I type this, I can't stop bawling)
          It's funny because I have always felt the same way. Daily, I see news stories about parents losing their kids and I see mothers burying their children and I think..... " I couldn't do it. I wouldn't be able to do it. How do they stand there so strong and do this?" I have been told that I am strong, but I am not THAT strong.
          In March of 2012 we lost a wonderful friend named Teddy, how he died is not important, how he lived is..... Teddy was a warm, loving, sarcastic, fun guy. Teddy cared about people, he loved his friends, he loved his family, he loved his daughter and he loved his mother. Hearing of Teddy's death brought a lot of our lives to a screeching halt, we couldn't believe it, we couldn't wrap our minds around why he was gone. Even at the funeral, we could see him there in front of us but I believe a lot of us just kept waiting to hear him laugh at all of us for being so gullible......but, it never happened.
            Since that horrible day we have all started to move on as best as we could. Some of us have become closer to others. I have been blessed enough to become closer to Teddy's mom, Priscilla. I am blessed to know her, she is the strongest person I have ever met. Priscilla posted earlier today that her and her husband watched the memorial episode of Glee and that she broke down during the episode and it seemed interesting to me that the only people I could think of during the episode was Teddy and Priscilla. He knew how much his parents loved him, and I hope they knew how much he loved them back. Teddy loved all of us, he cared about us. Even if he would never say it aloud, he always showed it. There was never any doubt of his caring nature. I am a lucky person to have known Ted, and a better person for knowing his gracious, unbelievably strong mother.
           Last night I had horrible dreams about Keegan being gone, how much I missed him and cried for him in my dream/sleep. When I woke up he was curled up next to me holding his teddy bear, and I wanted to cry. Not everyone has the luxury of hugging their baby whenever they want, I do. I complain about him crawling in bed with me at night, but at the end of the day, I secretly love it. I love cuddling with him and I love waking up with him, he's my favorite, I am very lucky.

 

my home

I don't even know where to start......

I wrote a facebook status last night about Chad Rogers, For those of you who don't know he is the runner here in Liberty that has been missing since going for a run at roughly 8pm on 7/22/13. My fiance, Chris, and I were driving around doing some errands yesterdfay and I was continuing to keep updated with the facebook updates about Chad as the day went on, when I had seen the first update something struck me, it wasn't just that Chad lived here in Liberty, it was that I knew the face, I knew the smile, I just couldn't pinpoint it. It wasn't until I really got to researching and reading more updates and seeing more pictures that I realized this was an old classmate. Chad was about 2 years younger than me but I remember seeing him in school, we weren't good friends, didn't run with the same crowds, but we had taken classes together and we had smiled to each other in the crowded hallways.

I was 15 when I moved to Liberty, I was mad about being uprooted again and having to make all new friends and leaving my old friends behind. It was hard enough the last few times I moved to make friends. I am still convinced to this day that my mother just pulled out a map and said "we'll move here" and that is how the move to Liberty was originated. I was sullen and moody in the back of the car when we moved here, my last school in Lakewood Co was still fresh in my mind, it was difficult to make friends there because it was an environment where if you didn't have money, come from a good family or hadn't lived there forever then you were an outcast and no one wanted to be friendly with you. For months, I just existed and ate lunch by myself, I went home directly after school and had really no friends. Therefore, when I saw the high school from the off ramp of the highway into Liberty, I realized how huge it looked and how fancy it was (honestly, I thought it was a mall). It wasn't until a week later when my mother went to enroll me that I realized it was the high school I would be attending. I realized quickly on my first day that this was a school where most of the kids were from well off families and most of them had known each other since Kindergarten (if not before that). As I started to be worried that I wouldn't fit in, I started to notice that this wasn't like every other high school I had been to, there didn't appear to be really any well defined cliques, kids would smile at each other in the hall and there was constant conversations between multiple groups as I walked down the hallway. I even saw a couple cheerleaders help a handicapped girl when stuff fell out of her locker and she was having trouble picking it up. I saw kids that would have never been within meters of each other in my old school having actual conversations with each other in this school.

My first day I even had a a girl named Amy ask if I wanted to have lunch with her and her friends, I quickly said yes. Within days I was invited to these girls houses, I was hanging out with them in between classes and they even included me in other activities they would do. It wasn't long before I had many friends and knew almost everyone in each of my classes. I was grateful to not be alone anymore. I had spent many, many years (practically my whole life) moving from one school, house, and state to another, never really feeling like I was home, never really feeling like I was where I belonged. Never really feeling settled.

Until I came to Liberty.

In the 13 years since I have graduated high school I have stayed in contact with some friends, made friends with people that went to the same high school as me but I did not already hang out with, and have completely forgotten some had existed until I see them out and about and we stop and say hi to each other. Life gets in the way some times as we get older, what seemed important as a 16,17 or 18 year old is usually not so important at 28, 29, or 30. You go to college, obtain a career, make new friends, get married or even become a mother or father. You never really forget your past but you don't think about the things you did or the people you knew as much anymore. You occasionally get hit by a scene or a smell and have a pleasant memory of a friend, a time or even a teacher and you smile and fell warm and fuzzy for a minute and then you move on. We all move on and go about our lives and eventually high school just isn't that important anymore. Some of us move on to other cities and states, some of us stay put, some of us leave and then come back, either way life is never really the same.

As an adult I have seen the news stories where people are hurt, abducted, killed, raped, or even enslaved for years, we all have. We all become somewhat hard to the world and evil outside our bubbles, we become jaded and we start to believe that good doesn't exist in the multitudes that we remember from when we were kids. We no longer believe in happy endings, we no longer believe in miracles, we tend to lean more to the negative side while trying desperatley to remain positive (even if only for the sake of our children or families, somedays)

For two days one of our own has been missing, it is not something that happens daily so when it happens in your towen it is a shock. However, despite the bad things in the world and despite the circumstances that surround us, I have seen good. I have been witness to an amazing phenomenon. I have moved a lot in my life and I have lived in a lot of towns, but I have never seen what I have seen in the last two days in ANY place that I have ever lived. I see a community that is loving, caring, full of grace and kindness. I see people taking time from their important activitites and families to help another family look for a son/ husband and father that has been missing for two days. I have seen volunteers that search for hours on end, I have seen people volunteer to take care of those search and rescue groups, I have seen businesses/ corporations that have donated, supplies and food, even shuttle service to and from an airport. I have seen the unthinkable happen, I have seen strangers become angels and I have seen a community band together for the betterment of one family. I have prayed more in the last two days than I have in a long time. I pray for a happy ending, I pray for good news, I pray for a miracle. I pray for a mother and father to get their son back, I pray for a wife to get her husband back and, most importantly, I pray for a 13 month old son to get his daddy back. I am choosing hope. we all know the statistics, we all have heard the horror stories, we all know what could be awaiting us.....yet we still choose prayer, grace and hope. I think that says something. In my 32 years of life I have never seen something like I have seen in the past two days and it brings tears to my eyes even as I write this.

I will continue to pray for a miracle for this man who simply smiled at me daily in the hallway, a simple smile that made an outsider believe that this place was finally different, and a kindness that was carried throughout his peers and made us all better people. I am proud to say that Liberty, Missouri is my home and I would never want to be anywhere else. Chad, we are praying for a miracle, praying that as K-9 units, police and volunteers search for you that our Lord will give someone the sight to find you, pray that you get to come home soon and safe and pray that He is with you and that He has His arms around you and your family.

I didn't know it until now but Liberty is and always will be my home and I think I was always meant to end up here.

#findChad #bringChadhome

You can't get rid of me that easily.....

Today was definitely a test in patience. I learned today that I never really take the easy way out, I have had plenty of options to take the easy way out of many situations, I just never choose to. It seems like a cop out to me, I have watched so many people in my life take the easy way out, be lazy or just not do something because it was easier to not do it. Not me, I push and push and push until I either break through or get angry because I think I might have to give up.

I stayed with a man for 12 years when neither of us were really happy, because I believed it would work and it would change into what we both wanted, It didn't. I dated another guy for two years who was mean and just didn't want what I did because I thought he would eventually come around, he didn't. I let my mother constantly criticize me, talk down to me and treat me like I was lesser than my brothers for 31 years because I believed that was all I was worth, It wasn't. I let someone who I thought was my best friend boss me around for years and years because I thought I wasn't smart enough to make worthy decisions for myself, I was. My point is.... I don't give up easily but when I do finally give up on something it is because there is no point in holding on anymore and I really let it go. I've learned to not look back, I've spent too much of my life looking backwards. I allowed crappy people into my life, I allowed them to treat me badly, I allowed them to hurt me....

I spent the last 4 years praying, crying, changing, doing everything I could think of to be the girl I used to be. I used to be fun, I used to be positive, I used to be confident (at least to some extent) and most importantly I WAS STRONG. I was a tough cookie, It took a lot to break me and over the years I had allowed myself to become weak, to become a victim, to become dependent, to become needy, to become validated only by others instead of myself. 3 years ago I finally decided to do something about it and change who I was, it has been a long road and a tough road, but I want my son to see me as someone who never gave up. I want him to see a woman who fought against every adversity, who knocked down every wall in her way. I want him to see me at my best. I want him to see a woman who didn't need anyone else's validation. A mother he can be proud of and say "my mom never gave up, she made the best of everything she had and did, and that's why I am proud to be her son"

I want him to know that you can never be beaten unless you allow yourself to be beaten. I will not be beaten. I am finally in a good place in my life, I still have roadblocks placed in front of me daily and I have to fight past them, but I realize how blessed I am. I have surrounded myself with a small group of people who are good to me, they listen when I need to talk, they encourage my successes and support me even in my failures, They make me more aware of how good my life has become. I love them, I am thankful for them and I am happy I found them. Family is not always blood, more often than not it is the people you handpick to be in your life, they care for you even when they don't like the choices you've made and they are always there when you need them. I am very lucky to have the family that I have found, it is the family that I have always dreamed of and I am very blessed to have them and I am very blessed to finally know who I am and who I was always meant to be.

I am tough, I am worthy and I am still here. You can't get rid of me that easily.........