13 Days - old - Staff infection. Was in hospital for 6 weeks. About 30% of all the babies that had gotten this infection that year died.
Around 5 years old - Dad told me & my brother (13 months younger than myself) that he didn’t care if we fought, but the loser gets a spanking. I was bound and determined not to be the one who got a spanking.
1st Grade - I got put in the hall because another girl was yelling at me and I yelled back. She did not get put in the hall. (She ended up getting her way) I didn't think this was fair.
Around 8 years old - Fondled by older brother. More than once, things like this happened. My dad caught him once, and not only he, but I got a spanking for it.
The only time I ever remember meeting my grandfather (Dad’s dad) he was always telling me and my younger brother that if we touched anything he would poke our eyes out. As I thought about this I wondered if he treated us this way, did he treat his own children that way. That may explain some of the reason my dad treated me as he did.
Dad would call me out of bed at night when he got home from work to do things for him (get him a glass of milk, change the tv channel, throw his dirty clothes in the laundry). As a matter of fact, my mother told me that for about one or two weeks, I would sleep walk when my dad got home from work and get his dirty clothes, put them in the laundry, and go back to bed and never know I had done it the next day.
Dad was always teasing me and making fun of me (Calling me fat or when I would sing, a sick cow ). My dad weighed over 350 lbs. but still made fun of me. This made me feel like he was a hypocrite.
Age 13 - Dad told me not to consider any place my home until I was married and had a house of my own. When I was married to my first husband I was married, but we always lived in an apartment or with some member of his family, so I didn't have a house of my own. A year after my divorce, I bought my house for my daughter and I, but now I had the house, but was not married, so I still did not fulfill what my dad had told me. It was not until 2006 when my current husband and I got married and he moved into my house that I finally felt like I had done what my father said and I was "home".
Age 21 - The night before my first wedding the Dr. said that we shouldn’t get married because my husband was sick.
Over the next 3 years we had many of my husband’s nephews and cousins living with us.
1980 - 1989 6 miscarriages
Around 1987- My first husband started having affairs.
My husband kidnapped our daughter and took her to El Paso for a week. I didn’t know where they were. This was the closest I ever came to committing suicide. I thought if there was anything in our medicine cabinet that I would take it and put myself out of the misery I was in at the moment. Then God gave me the thought that if I did that then my husband would win and have his way because he would be the one raising our daughter. I could not let him get the satisfaction.
Husband in and out of the home from 1987 to 1993 when he left for the final time.
Divorced in 1997. The Lord would not give me the peace to start any of the proceedings, even though I had one of those "do-it-yourself" kits at the house and every biblical reason. When he sent the papers to me was when the Lord spoke to my heart and said that I had done all I could to save my marriage and that it was now OK to sign the papers and let him go.
Lived in some really bad apartments until I got my house in 1998.
Around 1999 we went through a church split that really devastated my daughter and myself. I have often said it was like going through a divorce all over again.
2001 - My mother passed away in April, my daughter graduated in May, and my best friend moved away in August. Not to mention 9/11 when the Twin Towers were bombed.
Have had to watch my daughter go through some drinking activities that reminded me of her father. I told her after one particularly bad episode, that I felt like she didn't care about how much trouble I went through to get her into this world and keep here safe through all these years. It felt like a slap in my face for her to risk her life with all the drinking and then trying to drive. I spent a lot of time worrying and praying for her when she wasn't in the house. This finally made an impact on her and she at least slowed down on the drinking and then got a handle on things to where she pretty much stopped drinking.
1995 - 2011 - Stressful job. I felt the Lord telling me to start looking for something else, but I was afraid of not having money enough to support my family, so I kept putting it off. He had to get me out of that toxic environment.
2010 - MRSA on the spine. Dr. told my husband that he didn’t think I would live through the surgery to drain the infection. Then when I made it through, another Dr. said I would never walk again.
Then had to through a second surgery to control a bleed that the hospital caused by giving me blood thinners, and repeated suppositories.
Was dropped 3 times while in the hospital, the last one resulting in a wound on the front of my right let that had to be debrided of dried blood and infection and left a very large scar.
January 2011 - 3 weeks after getting home from hospital my husband lost his job. Then in March I lost mine. I then went on permanent disability.
After 7 years the pastor I was working for retired and I had to start working for a new pastor. At first I was afraid of losing my job, or having things change so much that it would make me quit. Thankfully the Lord worked everything out and now the pastor calls me his "CEO".
Another pastor has retired, and I am now working as the Executive Assistant for another new pastor. He and his wife are also friends, which can be both a good and a bad thing for them to be a boss also. So far, the Lord has let us work together very well.
You will notice, that there is yet another number on my list. This is because I am still here on this earth,
and as long as I am, God will be helping me get through one kind of problem or another. Without Him, where would I be?
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