It was so much harder than I expected. I had successfully navigated the Christmas holidays all seven years prior as a divorced parent with my two young daughters. Now, in my 8th year as a divorced parent, the Christmas season was upon us. Their dad made a request to take the girls away for both…
I couldn’t catch my breath. I was in a public place and tears were streaming down my face. The threat of urinating on myself was real. I could not stop laughing. It came wave after therapeutic wave – the fits of giggles in between the gasps for air. When I think back to the four…
We woke early with our mission in mind. On this misty morning, we found the tide reaching as far back into the ocean as possible. We walked quickly on the smooth, sand-soaked surface to discover this spot of local magic. Here in the tiny town of Neskowin, Oregon (population 134) – just past Proposal Rock…
There was a hole on the wall. She stared at it with the tears coming anew. This hole was not the kind that needed spackling and sanding, but the kind that needed time and space to replace the vacancy. She had just taken down the wedding portrait of her son and now former daughter-in-law. The…
The first time I saw a man punch a woman in the face, I was in high school, in the passenger seat of my boyfriend’s car, looking out the window at the bowling alley we were passing. I was shocked, horrified, and instantly felt sick to my stomach. Prior to that moment it had never…
She said it in such a whisper I could barely tell she was talking. “I still love him,” she said with a shiver of shame running over her. My heart moved over to make room for her. I had met this sadness before – from the hims and hers who came in throughout the years…
I live in constant fear. Walking on eggshells, whispering my first words in a conversation and bracing myself when I hear the door shut from their arrival have become the norm. It started about 2 years ago when my oldest turned 13. My household now includes a 15 ½ year old and a 13 year…
I will not likely ever forget the pit in my stomach. It was in the wee hours of the morning when sleep evaded me. After a recent break-up, my thoughts were not yet managed, nor healed. I rolled over in bed to open my laptop and before I knew it there he was in a…
For 13 consecutive years now on a back-to-school morning I have awakened with excitement. In the early years I picked the perfect bow for my daughters’ hair and took my time while they let me brush and style their pretty hair. In the latter years I have helped chose the outfit or made sure group…
A three-hour window. A three-hour window was all it took to feature the failings of co-parenting. It was a minor parenting plan problem. Our case study features an eight-year old girl and her parents two years post-divorce. 4th of July arrived with the provision providing for holiday parenting time to begin at noon. The…