"What are you most grateful for right now?"
It's a bit of a tough one to pinpoint exactly, at this strange and tumultuous time of my life, but I would best express it as: "My Family" - even though I have needed to redefine it for myself lately for the sake of my own sanity.
My incredible partner @ZakLudick and I moved in together at the beginning of December. We have 3 children between us:
The boys: @MatthewWilliams (9) @MerenLudick (11)
The young lady: @AimeLudick
and let me tell you, I did not just simply hop from being a single mom of one to a very involved mommy of three overnight! Oh no 🤣
The last 2 years of courtship between us has not just been a courting of couples. There's so much more to it when there are kids involved.
There was so much: "Who is this person?" and "Do they love me?" and "Do I have to call them Mom or Dad?" and "How will I parent 3 children?"
Navigating this new tundra has required guidance, tolerance, learning and patience from each and every single one of us, from our youngest - to us as parents, and it hasn't been without hiccups.
We've tripped and fallen and bumped our limbs and emotions a number times, but with each bump comes 10 hugs and good honest conversation. We've had to learn to feel each other out and learn that each one of us is a different individual with different triggers and love languages.
I'm proud and grateful that we were able to create a safe space for all of us to achieve that (and I use the word achieve lightly as it's more of an on going progress as we all change and grow).
So with our 1st Christmas (in our new home) in the bag and a whole brand new year to look forward to, I can look back on the last two years, and can say with absolute certainty, that I am most grateful for my family.
I would like to invite @anitahorvatirl to join our community.
all photos were taken by myself and @zakludick