Hey Everyone,
It's been a while since I've been on the boards, but I've been pretty busy. A few weeks after my last post (here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRtSo-YpWbk), I found myself in a horrible situation. We had just miscarried, and my wife and I were facing extremely serious marital issues, and were looking straight down the barrel of divorce and breaking apart our family. Reality crumbled beneath my feet. Ironically, I thought it had a lot to do with toy collecting, but the issues were much deeper below the surface than merely toys. So, I've spent the better part of the last nine months or so putting my life back together. --More accurately, I have been putting my life back together with the woman I love right by my side. We've made some serious strides in our life and in our marriage because we didn't give up on each other no matter how difficult and how futile things seemed. Ultimately, we had faith in our marriage and faith in each other. In June, I put school on hold and was lucky enough (despite not having finished my degree) to find a job... get this... as a marriage and relationship educator at a local social service agency. Neither myself nor my wife found this to be a coincidence. Considering everything we had gone through, we realized that it was pretty much God, the universe, or whatever higher power one might believe in, showing us we were on the right path. After we faced our mistakes and hurt together, we reaffirmed our love and commitment to each other. Once this happened, I found myself in my new job, more financially secure than we've ever been. A month later, we were able to find a wonderful new home that we could afford, a new car (new to us, anyway) that we could afford, and found out we were once again expecting a baby.
So, my friends... that's why I have been away for so long. It started off with resentment and so much hurt... now, my wife and I teach marriage retreats together, we're happy, financially stable, we had a wonderful Christmas (for which she gave me the TRU Vintage Collection Millennium Falcon, I might add
), and we are due to have another little girl any day, now.
So, for any of you struggling, I can only quote Rocky Balboa: "The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place. It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"
Keep your head up, your gloves strapped, and never give up. Especially when it seems hopeless. Have faith in people, have faith in the divine, and never forget to have faith in yourself. All that said, Ladies and Gentlemen... I'm back!
