Second Chances for Firsts
Hello wanderer of the internet!
We’ve made it through the holiday season - Woohoo! As much as I love the holidays and being able to spend quality time with family, the busy nature of the festivities and traveling with three young children really wears me out. Our holidays were filled with laughter and joy, and no crazy conflict for the first time in years. I am very grateful.
A photo of me & all three kids that Charles took on Christmas morning.
To elaborate, in years past, our family has been through a lot of crazy conflicts and trauma. Last holiday season of 2023, I was 8 months pregnant with Daxter, when Charles and I ended up splitting for a little while as a last resort during mutual mental health crises. It really tore through us all, kiddos included. We never got to spend our first Christmas together because of the brief split, and we also missed out on celebrating what would’ve been our first anniversary together as well. It was a traumatic and heartbreaking holiday for everyone. The years before that (2022-2020), me and the kids were guaranteed to go through absolute hell for every holiday or special occasion thanks to the older two’s biological father/our abuser. He always made sure to replace our joys and smiles for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s with crippling fear and chaos.
A photo of Charles & I from Christmas Eve.
This was the first time we’ve all had a genuinely good holiday without anything getting in the way of making good memories. It was also Daxter’s first holiday season, which made it all the more special. And to top it all off, Charles, the kiddos, and I got a second chance at our first Christmas & New Year’s together. Charles and I also celebrated our 2-year anniversary yesterday, January 6th (We go by our original anniversary date because we were split up for only a short amount of time). These recent memories healed so much for us. It has truly been the greatest holiday yet.
To those reading, I hope your holiday season was well, and if it was not, I wish you better days in the immediate future.
Signing off,
- ShelbiLynn (stopitshelbi) 🖤
