A little history

This is my first blog entry. I'm nervous & my wrist is broken. I have to have my kid type for me.

A little history now: I was married to Mark for 6 years. He was a policeman in Canby. We had two kids. Carrie then Andy Bob.

We found out that Andy Bob was retarded when he was 1, that was the first crack in the road. The second was when Mark was killed in 1979 leaving me a widow at 25 with my kids at 4 1/2 & 2 1/2.

I was in a state of shock and had very low self esteem. I met another policeman & got married two years later. I didn't know him very well & I had also turned my back on God.

We were married a year & then I left him because of his addiction to porn etc.

When Andy Bob was five we found out he has Retinitis Pigmentosa. It's a degenerative eye disease where he will eventually be blind. This was crack #3.

I found out later that my kids had been abused by husband #2. I never thought I would thank God that Andy Bob was retarded but he couldn't remember any of the abuse. Carrie, however has lifetime scars from this. I feel that as the mother I had failed them miserably. I still grieve over my mistakes. I didn't know about the abuse until Carrie was 11 & told. This of course was crack #4.

We've all worked on forgiveness & healing since then.

I told God that I would remain single for the rest of my life but He had other plans, "BIG" ones. His name is Dan & he is 6' 8" & wears size 18 shoes. He is as gentle as he is tall. He was an answer to prayer that I wasn't even praying about. We met through friends from Church. Andy Bob loved him at first sight & vice versa. Carrie on the other hand took a bit longer but by God's grace she came around. We've been married for 16 1/2 years & going strong!

I forgot to mention that my Mother had been living with us & helping raise my kids & was going to move out when we were getting married. Dan had other ideas. He wanted us to be like the Walton's. Poor Dan went from being a bachelor to being a husband of two wives & two kids. With God's help & a lot of humor we've made it work!

Since this was a little draining for my first post I'll write more later & I promise there will be more humor to come. That's it!!