When you’re the one who does Everything…They pretend you do Nothing!

Dec 4

I don’t talk about this part of my life often, but it’s the truth that shaped me into the woman I am today.

While my ex-husband won guardianship of my daughter Isabella, the reality is that he never actually did the things I did. He couldn’t. When we were married, and even long after we divorced, I was expected to shoulder everything alone. He traveled constantly. He had outside relationships from the time I was pregnant with our first daughter, Olivia. I drove the kids everywhere. I handled the doctors, the schedules, the schoolwork, the daily life. I kept our home and our family functioning.

My ex-husband had to hire people to cook for him and the kids. He had to hire people to clean for him and the kids. He bought cars for the kids so they could get themselves around because he couldn’t take them. He put our daughter on the bus in the morning and had her come home in a car with the boys. He has never had to do what I have done. And he still can’t.

And for a long time, my family hid that from me too. They held my inheritance back because my strength made them uncomfortable. My resilience made them resentful. My ability to carry what others could not made them feel small. They never wanted me to recognize the truth. They needed me to believe I was less, because it made them feel like more.

But stepping back today, I can finally see clearly.

I changed my body.

I changed my life.

I changed the way I think.

I changed my circle.

I built businesses I am proud of.

I rebuilt myself in every way a woman can rebuild.

And none of them ever wanted me to see that. Because it would force them to face their own limitations. Their own shadows. Their own jealousy.

But I see it now. And I honor it. And I celebrate it. Because the life I have today is the life I built with my own two hands. Not because someone supported me, but because they didn’t.

I rose anyway.