A Long Time Coming

Greetings from this side of the new year.  Life has happened, both great and small, good and bad, so I hope you will all forgive me for my protracted unannounced sabbatical.  I have returned, and I most definitely hope to be around for awhile.

Okay, let's stop being so lyrical and wordy for a few minutes and I will give you an idea of my life in the past year I have been absent.  May 7, 2012 was my last entry, and since then, it's been a bit of a roller coaster of life. 

• My daughter had just celebrated her birthday in the month previous and once school ended at the beginning of May, I decided to take a bit of a break to spend with my family.
• At the very beginning of June, I found out I was pregnant.  This was both terrifying and exciting.
• On the morning of June 9, my mother suffered a massive ischemic stroke and for a while it was touch and go with no real sense of what her prognosis would be.  The only saving grace to this information was knowing that not one week before, I had told my mother the news (choosing not to wait) that I was pregnant. 
• In August, I was interviewed and hired for work study in the office of my college's athletics department.
• I began my final semester of community college taking 16 credit hours and continuing work study.  That was a hard semester for me not just with the work load while pregnant, but knowing how limited my time with my husband and daughter was.  
• In September, I was sent an email from the Norman Mailer Center about verifying my information for an award I had won from them.  At first I was convinced it was a prank or scam, but it turns out it was legitimate.  In that one writing contest I submitted to, I was a semi-finalist in the 2-year college fiction division.  And yes, that is the contest I mentioned entering in my previous entry. 
• My mom came home from the hospital in September but ended up back in for kidney problems in October.  She didn't come home until the day after Thanksgiving.
• In November, we were able to travel to see my family back in my hometown for Thanksgiving and I was able to see my mom for the first time since her stroke.  It was wonderful and difficult all at once.  But knowing I got her to smile and laugh a bit and that my daughter got to see her Nanny for a few days was priceless to me.  
•  I finished school and work study in mid-December and spent the holidays enjoying my family and excited for the new year.
• I won't lie, January was torturous to me.  By then, I was very pregnant and very uncomfortable with not much to do but wait.
• Finally, February 2, my second daughter was born at a whopping 10 pounds, 1.5 ounces.  For those who do not use our weighing system, she was 4.57 kilograms.
• Just two days after bringing her home, my youngest ended up back in the hospital due to severe jaundice and had to undergo 24 hours of photo therapy.  

Now, life is beginning to settle in again, though at the moment a severe cold has taken over our household and my two girls are definitely not feeling their best.

So you're probably wondering why it is I'm being so personal when I've specifically refrained from that for so long on this blog.  I've decided that the best way for me to be inspired and to write is to share.  Especially after this past year, I just don't think it helps me to be so sterile in my writing and blogging.  That won't get me as far as I want it to, and I think writing makes one the most vulnerable.  It's one's own thoughts, pure and unobstructed, laid out for all to see.

This is what I've battled for so long: sharing my thoughts, my writings openly.  And it's time that I just let myself be me and write.  It's time I share with you and with everyone, who I am and what exactly is going on in my mind and in my world. 

 So, welcome.  It's always nice to meet a friend and share the world with them.  And in this case, all the worlds you can possibly imagine, which I intend to do.