Faith and Family Keep Me Grounded
From Loss and Hardship to Finding Purpose and Faith
My journey has been a long, tough one, but I wouldn't change any part of it because I know that each step has contributed to who I am today. Having lost my father at the age of 15, I was determined to marry young so my children wouldn't have to go through something similar. I had my life all planned out.
Education. Check.
Marry a man who knows the Lord. Check.
Get a great job. Check.
Have kids. Check.
And then move up the corporate ladder and live happily ever after.
What? Did I think I was living in a Disney movie?
Instead, when I was 37, I lost my husband to cancer and was left to raise our children alone.
Was it hard? Absolutely. But I was driven and determined that it wouldn't defeat me.
I learned to really lean into God and trust Him.
And I came to recognize that the corporate ladder I thought was so important in my younger years meant something different now. Instead of trying to climb up, I learned to dig in and excel in anything I was doing. Give it my best. Do everything for the right reasons. And trust that when the time was right, He would give me what I needed.
Then came the next blow: after 24 years of dedicated service to that corporate world, I was downsized. I won't get into the details, except to say that their methods and implementation of eliminating roles were horrific. What felt in the moment like a horrible thing to have been part of became the best thing ever to happen to me. Over the next several years, I watched a pattern emerge, with more and more people being eliminated from that place about every six months. It was easy to be angry—and I was. But I turned that anger into gratitude for the opportunity that was afforded to me.
I switched to a totally different atmosphere of nonprofit work, and now I feel that what I'm doing really makes a difference. I get to hear stories from members about what they need to succeed, and I am able to help them with a portion of that.
I have since remarried, and our blended family continues to grow as our children have become adults. I am thankful for every step of my journey and hopeful that you will take one thing away: always give everything your best and do it with your head held high. He will carry you through if you let Him.
