how it all begins

my name is amy and i am a 30 something year old mother of 2 beautiful girls and wife to my best friend. i am so truly blessed to be here in this moment full of encouragement and hope! i am so blessed that i feel lead to share:)

my life: (short and sweet version)

born to parents that wanted to break vicious cycles but needed to work on themselves 1st, thankfully they are both in really amazing places now. my wonderful/precious mother is remarried to a great man and he is a good father to me. my father also has remarried and she is one of the most amazing people i know! both sides of my families have dealt with abuse in all cases. mostly in drugs and alcohol. my father thankfully is 14 years sober and we have a great relationship.
but as a child i felt abandoned so with the vicious cycles not broken i started walking down paths that lead to dead ends. I started smoking cigarettes @ 12 and was smoking pot by 14 on a daily bases. when i was 17 i stared abusing prescription pain pills which lead to acid and ecstasy. by the time i was 20 it was no big deal to be doing lines of cocaine here or a bump there, even meth on occasion as well as drinking on top of all the drugs.and of course i was very promiscuous because all i wanted was love. and as i was abusing myself i was also abusing my beloved friends and family members.
@ 20 i meet the most beautiful man i had ever seen and wow! was he a sweet talker! i was obviously young and dumb so i feel madly in love with him:) we started dating and i wondered why we could never do anything so i asked if i could have his # and he was like well i'm in work release and can't do anything but see you here @ work. i being young was like oh yeah sure, no prob:) what is that? he said it's kinda like jail but he really didn't do anything wrong he was just @ the wrong place @ the wrong time kinda thing. i still being young understood and still loved him enough that i let him move in with me after he got out of work release(JAIL) so we partied aaaaalot and he was abusive but the numbed state that i was in from the drug/alcohol abuse i never even realized that there was a problem. by now i am 21 and @ my rock bottom. thank god i find out i'm pregnant! but the only thing is is that i was 9 weeks. so the flash backs of those 1st 9 weeks of this child in me were so horrifying i didn't know how this child was going to be ok. so as i'm realizing all the drugs and drinking i had done it hit me i must get clean because this is my second chance @ life! i did it and got clean! but he didn't:( i did end up marrying the sperm donor but only stayed married for a year because the only reason he needed me in the 1st place was to steal my identity, you read right! he put me in thousands of dollars in debt and a lot worse things as well which lead him to prison!!!!
after my precious baby and i left the crazy man i had to start a new life. i went home and changed career's. i am an artist and needed to make a living 4 me and my little one so with my mothers influence i became a hair stylist. things became very normal in our life we even meet the man of my dreams! the man and i became man and wife, he adopted my sweet rose and we then became a family of 4.
and then...
a year after the birth of our child is when we were hit with some major challenges. the baby had to have surgery on her neck in ATL. i then @ 28 had to have a hysterectomy and then 2 other surgeries which didn't go so well and then a 4th to fix somethings. this all happened in 18 months! i lost my job but thankfully the lord knew what he was doing! i have never been one to really listen to the lord so this was a great opportunity for him to get some time with me. all i could do for most of these 18 months was sit. i don't do that well, but man did i get slapped in the face and man did i start listening!!!!

jan. 19 2010 i turned 30 and vowed to make it the year of finding me and finally listening to what i was supposed to do with all this CRAZY i had been through:)
I LISTENED AND.....................

here i am ........
april 2010 i opened a very small salon in my back yard not really with a lot of clients because i had been out for so long but then all of a sudden people were come'n from everywhere to sit in my chair. i was so thankful i just jumped into my faith so then as people came to this HAPPY place they got more and more comfy and then started sharing there struggles and challenges in life. i started learning from them and found myself more encouraged and hopeful so in return i wanted to make a difference and shout to the roof tops that there is hope and so much love out there! but it is up to us to reach down deep and touch the ugly and hear the honesty even though it hurts because we can rise above and be healthy beautiful people inside and out!
and really when i dig deep within it's because all we need is love! we need love for ourselves, spouses, partners, children, friends, co-workers, family and whatever else that should be important:) out of all of these besides ourselves i think of our children and 4 me i was one of those hurting kids that took the hard road so i VOW to stop the vicious crazy train of a cycle and try my best 4 my kids.

so today a lady came into felicity(the salon's name, which means happiness and is my oldest child's middle name, fyi) who was my very 1st client in the chair of hope(april 8th 2010)! her coming today was my conformation of stating this blog finally! thx client!

what this blog will be like.....

the post will be me telling a story of a client who has shared encouragement and hope. such as,

today i am a married stay at home/home schooling mother of 3 with a loving husband who has just lost his job:(

i show encouragement by loving my husband no matter what! waking up everyday with a smile on my face because i know there are others in the world that have it worse. we are all healthy and alive to show how great god is!

thanks 4 reading and hope you continue to read my post and pray you find hope between the lines:)

much peace for you
amy