Life can be scary

When I was a kid I thought my life was bad. I lived on a nonprofit animal rescue which was a lot of work. Seriously, from the time I woke up every morning til I went to bed it was feeding and watering horses, pigs, goats, dogs, cats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese, and even peacocks and more exotic animals. When the regular chores were done there were always fences to mend, stalls to clean, sick or wounded animals to care for, and baby animals, without moms, to nurse.  My parents were Jehovah's Witnesses so I wasn't allowed to date or do anything with guys that was not supervised by an adult. I felt like I was living in a prison and I wanted out so badly. So just before my 17th birthday I ran away from my family and home in red lion Pennsylvania to a big old farm house in Manchester Maryland with a guy I thought was my whole world and would never let me down. Needless to say he did let me down about a year later and I finally started to learn how easy my life was when I was a kid. My first real scare in life came when I was 18 and learned I was pregnant. I had a beautiful baby boy about 3 weeks before I turned 19. I did the best I could as a single mom but was very happy when Joe asked me to marry him and then he adopted my son shortly after our daughter was born. We owned a house. Joe had a good job which allowed me to be a stay at home mom and I started college. Then Joe got laid off. My next big scare in life. We were faced with the possibility of losing our house. Thankfully a few months later Joe got a job as a police officer in DC but that meant we had to move 180 miles away from our family and friends to northern VA. This move was not only scarey but depressing. I knew no one here and it was hard to make new friends since we only had one car and Joe used it to commute to work each day. It took a lot of time but we all adjusted and eventually I made some wonderful friends. Last summer I graduated with a degree in psychology. But in that year Joe and I lost 3 of our grandparents. The current scares in my life include my brother's trial coming up and excepting that he may be going to prison for a while and I'm about to start grad school. Change is always hard but I am lucky to have my family. My beautiful, healthy children make every day worth getting up for. My husband is a rock. He works for us, loves us, and puts his own needs aside to support us. So yes, life is scarey and we never know what's coming next, but its also beautiful and the happy moments make the scarey ones so worth it. Just keep swimming......