Why I blog...

I started reading the blogs of 3 friends over a year ago. Meghan had moved and we hadn't kept in touch much. I think that we were headed to a Christmas Card friendship when I started reading her blog. I loved it! I felt like they were still in my town. I loved watching her kids grow up. I also started reading Kim and Alisa's blogs. They are good friends in my town - I see them at least once a week, but reading their blogs has been so wonderful. I have learned so much. I get to see sides of them that time, children, & life keep us from sharing with each other. So, after these wonderful examples of blogs, I decided that I wanted to create one.

Originally, my goals were to use my blog as our family scrapbook. There are a lot of day to day things that can get recorded in a blog that would not find their way to a scrapbook. Actually, very little has found it's way to our family scrapbook so I really needed to find something that would work for me! I loved the fact that all of our extended family could be included and feel a part of our lives. I loved that I would have an outlet to express some creativity. I still have plans to add a bit of color to my blog, maybe even some music.

Enter the divorce. Since the divorce, my reasons for blogging have changed a bit. My original reasons are still valid, but have become secondary to my main reason now. I feel this overwhelming need to be heard. In my hand written journal I can express my heart, pour out my feelings, but no one ever reads it but me. My blog has become my voice. One of the things that I really miss about marriage is having one person that I could tell anything and everything too. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of people to talk too, but no one person that I can tell everything too. Most of my friends here have never met my family so while they could listen politely, they can't add much to the conversation. Same with my family. They don't know my friends here. In a marriage, you have a person who knows almost everyone you know. You can talk to them about everything and they can add to that conversation. I have found that since the separation, I miss talking. I miss being heard. I have felt like my voice has been stifled.

So, blogging has become a way for me to be heard, to leave my ripple in the great pond of life, to record my family, to share my heart, to leave my footprint for my great grandchildren, to leave my testimony for others. Welcome & happy reading!