What I say about Hope....Hope 2012...a blog relay

You know, I have an extremely blessed life, this I will admit.  Other than losing my mother and mother in law, which was very difficult, I have not had to experience a tragedy that was difficult to move beyond.  I have no health problems, my children and husband are healthy, every thing is fairly good for me.  So when my girl Humble from Slice of Humble asked me if I could write something about hope, I was stumped.  I will admit, I read Humble's blog while I was picking up groceries with my daughter and I was the woman that aggravates the mess out of you because she's pushing the grocery cart and stopping, only I stopped, for 10 minutes, in front of the milk and couldn't put my phone down.   Here I was, reading what she wrote, then reading what the amazing woman who had tagged her had written....What in the hell could I write that could possibly compare to these two amazing ladies? There is nothing.   So, I decided to not even try to come close them.  I'm just gonna write and if it's good, it's good.  If not, well, then it's not. 

My children.  I have a son who just started the 7th grade and a daughter who entered 3rd grade this year.  I am a woman who is married to an offshore man, and granted, he only works two weeks at a time and is home two weeks at a time, but it is still difficult.  It's difficult in the sense that it falls on me to be the full time parent during the two weeks that he is gone.  It is my job to make sure that I instill in my kids, everything that is supposed to make them grow up and be a great adult and I worry that since that job falls solely on me half the time, that I am gonna fuck it up.  Let's face it, no parent believes that they are raising the next child that is going to kill his own parents or go on a rampage and kill others.  And yet that happens and happens to some parents who did everything they could to raise a beautiful, well balanced child. 

When my son started school this week, I felt panicky.  Panicky in the sense that it's junior high.  Did I supply him with the tools that he needs to make it through this?  Not just school supplies.  The supplies of self worth, determination, compassion, strength.  Did I give him those and try to build them up enough?  Cause let's face it, these are the years where shit starts.  The true figuring out of where you belong.  I remember my high school years and how I placed so much importance on being accepted by others and never was and how that devastated me.  Did I teach him that self acceptance is the most important, not the acceptance of others?  Did I teach him that compassion towards others who haven't figured that out and to reach out to them and let them know that it's okay to be who you are, how you are, where you are? 

It is my hope that I (and his dad) instilled in him all of the things he needs to make it through these next few years of school.  It is my hope that he never questions whether he belongs and just knows that he does.  It is my hope that he never experiences the heartache and hurt that I did, while growing up.  It is my hope, not that he will be a perfect kid, but that he will be a kid that knows if he does do something stupid, that it's okay, as long as he learns from his mistake.  But....even if with all of that hoping, even if he STILL experiences all that I did, I am a living example, that he can still be okay.  And if "I" turned out okay, then there is hope for him after all.   

And now....the lady over at Abandoning Pretense says that I need to tag and challenge other blogs to write about hope.  I'm sure most of them have already been tagged and truthfully, most of the ones that I follow, they write about hope anyway and always inspire me, but here we go...I'm gonna follow instructions.

  Step 1: Write a blog post about hope & publish it on your blog. 
  Step 2: Invite one (or more!) bloggers to do the same.
  Step 3: Link to the person who recruited you (me, in this case) at the top of the post, and               the people you're recruiting at the bottom of the post.



Melanie Crutchfield will be holding "Closing Ceremonies" around August 10 (I may be too late) and will gather up little snippets from people that wrote about hope, so make sure you link back to her as the originator of the relay

Now I call on:



SooperDad Blog of Awesomeness

Tripping While Standing Still

Daddy Doin' Work

The Monster in your Closet