The Unexpected Housewife

I disliked most of the time I spent as a teenager.  I felt consistently awkward, lacked confidence, and couldn't really figure out who I was.  I was considered "smart"-good classes, debate team, but was never athletic.  I had a core group of really nice friends, and they were good to me, but I felt so insecure I feared they would disappear in a moment. I was a classic good girl.  I didn't get in to trouble.  I wasn't interested in drinking or anything like that, I liked school, and was in the youth group at church.  However, being a teen was hard-people were tough, comments were unkind, and frankly, I yearned for college and an opportunity to reinvent myself. When I left for college, I was thrilled to be the only person from my high school attending Miami University.  I wanted the chance to be myself, be real, and leave it up to others to take it or leave it.  I was so blessed that I fell into a hallway my freshman year with girls who were funny...

About three years ago, Bob and I took our honeymoon to France.  We planned the trip for months, did tons of research and reading, and were thrilled we had saved enough to make it happen.  We were able to get advice from friends and family who had been there, and were beside ourselves when the trip began in late August. We flew to Paris, and immediately took a train out to Beaune, part of the Burgundian wine country.  We'd heard that it was lovely, low pressure, and a great place to really relax.  We found it to be entirely true.  We reveled in the food, local, inexpensive wines, and the markets.  We ate all kinds of delicacies and loved chatting with the locals.  Our first morning there, Bob ran out to get breakfast.  What he came back with is forever emblazoned in my memory.  The chocolate crossaints from a local bakery were paired with the most decadant hot chocolate, made in the hotel in which we were staying.  I felt like a princess...

I was recently thinking back to about a year ago when we were transitioning the kids to live with us.  It was a really exciting time but full of havoc and change.  Each weekend the kids would come to stay with us, and on Sunday nights we'd return them to their foster home.  The drive back to Charlotte without them was always hard.  Bob and I would have long talks, sometimes with our moms on the phone, sometimes through tears, as we drove back.  We'd work hard to get everything done we could during the week so that the weekends with the kids were devoted to them and helping them adjust. It was during last fall that I really learned how blessed I was to have solid friendships.  A wonderful group of my girlfriends rallied around me, helped me celebrate-and threw me a family 'completion' brunch.  While my situation was not the norm, they totally understood that this was a special time that they wanted to celebrate with me.  They were kind, supportive...