I’m not a writer. Something, or someone, has been tugging at my heart and mind, urging me to reach out. To who and for what, I am not sure. What I do know is if I tell my story, as painful as it may be, and am able to touch one person, I am a success.

A success is the antithesis of what I was feeling almost seven years ago. After 24 years of marriage, 3 kids, many successes and few low places, I arrived home to my husband telling me that he wanted a divorce. As I stood dumbfounded, tears streaming down my face, he walked out, never to return…..to the marriage, that is (he’d take the house back later). Was our marriage perfect? Of course not; no marriage is. But we weren’t divorce-bound, to my knowledge. Looking back, of course, my perspective is different (hindsight is always 20/20).

For the first few days, I was numb, and likely completely unaware of the perspective I’ve gained today. This man who I thought I would spend my entire life with was gone, leaving my life in shambles, my children devastated, our family destroyed, friends bewildered. My head throbbed from the constant crying. While I finally managed not to cry in front of the kids, the times when they weren’t around were uncontrollable.

And the icing on the proverbial cake was, a few days later, I was throwing a birthday party for our daughter, who

was turning 5. The party was already planned, and invitations had gone out, so there was no backing out. I didn’t want anyone to know my marriage had failed. The decision he made to leave somehow made me a failure

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As this blog has evolved, so have we.  Karen and I find ourselves in totally different places than we were years ago when we began with that very first step.  I don’t believe divorce is something anyone totally “gets over”, or “recovers from”, or “heals from”.  I believe the damage done is now part of who we have become.  For better or worse, it was the worst, at least in our minds.

We find ourselves growing and learning each and every day.  We also find that we still have the heart to be there for others as they try to find their way.  As Karen and I ran into a writing block wall of sorts, we questioned whether to keep the blog going or shut it down.  At just that moment we were referred to someone struggling, or we were asked to speak, or we received a note of thank you from someone reading one of our posts from months or years before.  You see there will always be someone out there just like us, searching for answers, searching for help, searching for someone to tell them they will survive and probably most importantly thrive.  As we wrestled with this decision, we each independently experienced some things in our own lives that either made us reflect on past writings or get out the keyboard and start writing again.

We believe God has nudged us both to keep plugging along and that is what we fully intend to do!  We have updated the website and will not only repost past stories, but new ones as well.  We know that even one life touched is enough.

So together lets keep taking one step at a time, and With Every Step we will together discover who we are meant to be!

Blessings,

Donna and Karen