Hi! I’m Ame. Unlike Cubbie, I’ve never met Amir in person; I only know him through blogging and email. As was revealed in one of the threads here, my personality is directly opposite of Amir’s! I am neither a rocket scientist, like our friend, Amir, nor an “Uber-geeky attorney,” like our friend, Cubbie. I have never finished my college degree. Given my age (43), and the reality that I’ve never been driven to earn my college degree, especially given the cost of a degree, I’ll probably live out the rest of my life content with the three years I spent at a private university in Texas after high school.
I met my first husband when I was 19 and we married fifteen months later in 1986. I was blessed beyond all I could ask or imagine with two beautiful, incredible daughters in 1997 and 2000. My Youngest has special needs; my Oldest reminds me daily she is a tweenager needing special attention J.
In 2003 I learned my husband was deep into sex addiction, and shortly after I began counseling with one of the best therapists I’ve known or heard of. My journey through therapy lasted 2 ½ years, walking me through my husband’s addiction and unfaithfulness, the 17 years I’d been married to this abusive man, the discovery of the layers of abuse I grew up in from my parents, a Co-dependency support group and a Sexual Abuse Recovery support group, an eight-month separation from my husband, a year of diminishing hope to salvage a marriage that began when I was 21, and the reality of pending divorce.
My ex moved out September 2005. My therapist moved to another state the end of 2005. I lost many friends and my church when he filed for divorce in October 2005. My divorce was final the spring of 2006. My house, which we’d built together, went on the market and took a year to sell. My 73 year-old Mentor died in April, 2007, after months of cancer eating away at her body. My house sold in the summer of 2007, and we moved the week before school started in August 2007. I spent the 07-08 school year fighting pneumonia, asthma, and stomach viruses. My parents’ divorce was final earlier this year, 2008. Here at the beginning of the fall of 2008, my girls just began fifth and third grades, and for the first time in 13 years, I am beginning to look for a job.
I am creative, artistic, intelligent, funny, crazy, and driven to survive. My Spiritual Gifts are Prophesy, Teaching, Exhortation and Prayer. And, according to Now Discover Your Strengths, my strengths are Empathy, Harmony, Developer, Maximizer, and Positivity. Yeah, all that pretty much sums me up 
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I think it’s been about a year that I’ve been frequenting Amir’s site. I like coming out here for several reasons. Amir is fair, and he won’t allow mud slinging; I feel protected out here. Amir will hold you accountable, and he will also admit when he’s made a mistake. And, I love coming out here because it’s a whole different place from my world. It allows me to get out of my circle in life, without leaving my home where I’m caring for my children, and see new and different things … and to see things from a different perspective. And that’s a really good thing.
My writing is a reflection of me … a woman whose life has been deeply embedded in Christ since I was nine-years-old, a woman who was married for 20 years, a survivor of childhood and spousal abuse, a survivor of the hell of divorce, a loyal friend to my grave, and a mom of two incredible daughters who are truly the light of my life!
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Update 05/2010 ~ I remarried almost a year ago to the man I wish I’d met 20+ years ago, and we began the process of blending two half-families into one family.
~Ame~
September 2008