I am so very sorry for the loss of such a beautiful young lady.  She and her family  are in my thoughts and prayers.  I must tell you Kristen,, I read alot of your blog last nite! Indeed you are an amazing young lady!  You have been through so very much in your young life, and yet, you are not angry (well maybe a bit at your mom).

You are very fortunate to have had  grandparents who loved you so very much.You have broken a hard circle to break and your kids are so very lucky to have you.

I must tell you though and I am sorry, last nite while reading some of your posts there was one about being a housewife.  I cant remember who made the comment but it quite curt. Basically saying that if you cannot remain home and be a housewife you should consider Not having children.  That really did upset me alot. I was a single mom after many years of abuse and my children are exceptional young ladies. I am very proud of them! I worked hard and so did they.  Would I have preferred to remain married? Indeed,unfortunately I had to make the decision.  Remain with a man who hits me,drank too much and began watching porn.  After much thought and many hours on my knees, I chose to leave. My father in law is a Deacon in the Baptist church and he came to counsel me one day. Advising me that he disagreed with divorce as well, but, that I was in a very tough spot. 

I ask you this… What do you think? would it have been better to remain with him?  My girls saw me carried away in an ambulance a few times..Children learn from what they see. Would I not have been setting a precedent that it is alright for a woman to be beaten, to be around drugs and alcohol?  In the end, I believe I did the right thing!

My eldest daughter just graduated last year in December in Poli Science and is one of the youngest people to ever be staffed at the Supreme Court!  My baby is now 19 and is an EMT and studying to be a Juvenile Probation Officer!  I have much to be proud of.

Was it hard? Indeed it was, but we made it, maybe we did not have all the money we had when I was married, but we always had food in the house and a roof over our heads!

I am now the Immigrant Outreach Coordinator for Catholic Charities in Baton Rouge. I love what I do, I am able to help others and learn many different cultures.  Lately we have been resettling people from the Middle East.  Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.  They chose to help our military and put their lives at risk. I have clients that were tortured horribly, many of their children were killed just because they chose to help us.

I love them all and consider them to be my family now, I am quite certain you understand their hardships and their lives. I noted you are fasting this month as are many of my clients.  Lovely people, I am the Mum to many of the young people that have brought here for freedom.  I am blessed to now have a few pseudo grandchildren.  a few from Iraq and our newest is from the Congo, where they escaped as well and are now free! Their daughters name in English is Heavens Angel.. I love her like no tomorrow.

I hope your fast goes well, how soon are you waking to have that bit of food before the sun rises?

I am Baptist, but I do alot of work with the Islamic Center here in Baton Rouge.  They come to Catholic Charities to assist and I go to them as well.  We are friends.  As much as I would like to learn Arabic, my tongue just does not pronounce it very well. so the most I can say is Habibbi.. so very sad as I would like to learn more, but I speak Spanish and English. It just does not roll for me.  Many of my clients now have nicknames that I have chosen for them as I cant pronounce their names!!lol

Goodness I am writing a dissertation it seems!  I am sick today, In the last couple of days I have been working with our local district attorney on 2 sex crime cases and their offices are very cold.  Yesterday I had to translate for a forensic investigation.  a little innocent child was abused sexually and I had to translate the interview.  I was sick already and when I got to the hospital the doctor and the nurse said, you dont look good, you dont sound good.  I said I was not feeling well, they took my temp and of course I was running a fever, they put a mask on me and gloves and I translated.  They then gave me samples of Tami-flu just to make sure.  Still not feeling well but I tried to go into the office today as I had to be at a meeting with the director of the Census Bureau, I only stayed for about an hour and then got such chills that I had to cancel the appointment and go home.

So now I have taken my medicine and I guess because I dont take much medicine it has made me feel loopy!!  Oh my! I am not a good patient!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you are a pleasure!  and looking forward to learning more about you!

I bid you peace my new friend