Survivors.

I stopped posting. It has been far too long, and I swear we are not dead. The last post was in December of 2011. Things were going great then, or so I thought, but then the New Year hit and my world collapsed. To gain a tiny (very nonspecific) bit of insight, here is a link to a Blog I wrote during that time, Wandering in the World without a Map.

For almost 8 months life was hell, and I do not use that term lightly. It was HELL, and it wasn't just our little 2 person unit that was affected. My immediate and extended family were all hit by the shock waves of the New Year. It was like our beautiful fruiting family tree was suddenly plagued with a blight which was creeping from the farthest limbs back toward the trunk, the core of our family.

I don't think I've cried so much for such a long time, but then, once the family tree was pruned of the blighted limbs, we slowly began to heal. It was not an easy process, and it is still, in 2013 not over (part of me questions if it ever will really be over). 

June 2012

Luckily, the core of our family was not infected, and we are regrowing, and in the summer of 2012, in one of my first steps toward healing, Tom and I came together on something; we adopted a lovely little girl who we named Leia (yes, she's a dog!).

She has become a constant joy during a dark time in my life. At first she was very afraid, possibly because she was an owner surrender, and her last family gave her up. Her first night home was pretty terrible because she cried from 11pm to 4 am and only took a 2 hour break (and I don't mean gentle whines, I mean shrieking). I was exhausted and worried because we live in an apartment and neighbors generally frown on a loud crying dog. Luckily the head of the rescue I work with gave me some advice and all was fixed.

June 2013

Today she is settled in, loves us both, but does still have some minor separation issues, luckily nothing that will get us kicked out. I can understand where she is coming from, after all, the family she had known all her life let her go, and I can only imagine... well,  more than imagine... how that had to have felt. Like I said, 2012 was a rough year, but Leia is the best part of it.

She brought Tom and I together. We work together to care for her and to do the best we can for her. He and I had our rough points, but we are making it through it, and are on our way to being a stronger couple for it.

This year will be the first time he has come to the beach with our family. It will also be the first year for Leia as well. We're in the process of preparing for another move, probably in the first half of 2014, and will both be graduating school in the next few months.

 Married life is not easy, no one said it would be, but it is worth it.  I am glad I have my partner, because despite all the pain in 2012 when all the dust settled, we were still side by side, bruised but not broken.