Welcome To My World In A "Blog-shell"

   Well, I have finally done it! Welcome to my first blog. Since this is the first one, I figured I should share a little bit more about my family and I seeing that the profile info section can be a little vague for those who have no idea who any of us are and why am I posting the content that I am.

   Wow, where to start!? 

   The month of December seems to have appeared in many of my family's 'tales', so in the true spirit of the season, let's start with a departure to Christmas' past...

   December of '94 - I met my husband to be at a rather pathetic old age of 19. He was my 1st boyfriend and (to this day still sadly), I found myself completely and utterly in love with him. I gave up on high school to spend time with him, and January of '96, we welcomed Craig Jr. We made our family unit 'official' not too long after, and got married in October '97.

   Our family grew with the editions of Gillian (January '01), and Emma (March '03)

   December of '03 - marked the end of our family unit as we knew it. Let it be noted that in the months preceding it I literally watched my marriage go from wonderful and thriving to heartwrenching and flatlining. 

   I will never forget this year. I was 7 months pregnant with Emma and it was 2 weeks until Christmas. He had been spending alot of time with friends (one in particular) and had been neglecting us. I was trying to talk to him about it, to find out what was going on. Well, he dropped a bomb I was NOT expecting. He told me he didn't have feelings for me anymore. I died inside that night. I am truly thankful Emma made it to term because I was throwing up for the rest of the night.

   January (our son's birthday actually), he said he wanted to seperate. I was 'allowed' to stay in the home however because of Emma's pending arrival. Life was surreal. We became completely neglected. He let the bills go one by one and any much needed repairs on the house...first the gas, then the phone and cable. I remember a cold winter keeping warm by means of the oven and a small heater. We all slept in the living room because the electricity didn't work upstairs. It was quite fun carrying huge pots of warm water upstairs 8/9 months pregnant just to bath Craig and Gillian. I loved when we were rescued by grampie for a couple of days. I would just stand in the shower for an hour appreciating hot water! His work cheques seemed to disappear, so we lived off of the child tax benefit & the foodbank. Despite it all, I stayed. I wanted so bad for it to just be a spell...a faze he was going through.

   Emma was born in March and nothing got better of course. Daddy disappeared for days at a time and was 'rumoured' to be in a new relationship. The summer passed and I could not fathom another winter as the last.

   On August 5, 2003 I packed up what I could carry of mine and the kids and had my husband drive us into town. He dropped us off in Sobey's parking lot and I called a cab to take us to where we would call home for the next several weeks. As it pulled up I asked if he was sure and all he said was "Sorry". In a matter of minutes, he was gone and we were being taken to the local women's shelter...

    To be continued...