I asked on my Facebook page yesterday if anyone might like to join in some prompted writing this week. If it's something you lovely TTers like I'd love to make it a regular thing.
The prompt was to look back at a time of stress or challenge in your life and recognize the gratitude you have for that time now. Of course ALL Thankful Thursday posts are welcome to link up as always.
Many years and three children ago we lived in Queensland. We had a baby boy and moved up there chasing a dream when he was about 9 months old.
I truly loved living there, not least because it was the first year of my life that I didn't crack the SAD's over Winter. We made some amazing friends, a number of whom we're still in touch with today.
And then it all went to hell.
My husband was contracted as director of an advertising firm. He'd worked with one of the owners before, the other was an unknown entity. The very short version is that things did not work out. The long version includes absolutely disgraceful behaviour on their behalf to the extent of extreme bullying and even death threats to some of the franchise owners. Cowboys.
I was pregnant with our daughter by then and we just wanted to get out of there. We were scared and thousands of kilometers away from our families. Our home down here had been rented out for a year so we literally had nowhere to go once we decided to head back to Victoria.
Thankfully my sister-in-law very graciously took us in. My husband was not in a good place emotionally, I was a big bag of hormones and we had an energetic little boy running around as well. I don't know if I've ever expressed to her how grateful I am that she opened her home to us in a time of great need.
This was a turning point for all of us. The hubster had a truck license and our experiences had soured the advertising field for him completely. He started looking at jobs in the transport industry and a Supertrucker was born.
Our tenant moved out a week before our baby was due and we went home. I literally went into labour hours after unpacking the last of the boxes.
Life has changed so much since then, sometimes I forget just how awful that time really was. I'm glossing over it here but truly it was a very scary time for very many reasons.
I am so grateful that it is far behind us now and nothing but a memory. The entire experience of shifting our little family interstate and back again was fairly stressful in itself but through it all I learned that I possessed a strength I'd not recognized before. The time of unemployment during and after the move back home was horrible, but I worked hard at my manufacturing business and somehow we got through it with help from our families.
I am so grateful to both of our families for the support they gave us both financially and emotionally. I am thankful for all that we learned from that time, and I am thankful that when things are feeling hard now I can look back at that time and others we have gotten through together and know that we can get through this as well.
Strength is a funny thing. You don't know you have it until after you've used it sometimes.
Some housekeeping: I love reading all your thankful posts each week. When you link up here I would really appreciate a link back to this post so your readers might come and check out a few of the other blogs that have linked up as well. Share the love!
I'd also love it if you could try and comment on a few of your fellow thankful crew... Comments make everyone happy :)
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