Day 33 ~ Thank you God for My Family! For I Am Truly Blessed.

My days are getting better as they pass.  I feel that I am in a good place right now.  Feeling a family's support is an amazing feeling!!  Not a day goes by that I do not thank God everyday for my family.  I truly feel blessed.

Courtesy of Bing images

It wasn't always like this.  My childhood was a troubled one... after all if you looked up "dysfunctional family" in the dictionary, well there was a picture of my family!! 

I am not joking.  When I got married to my son's father, I had to make a deal with my father to allow my sister at my wedding or my mother could not be invited.  I allowed my sister there, and in the end he renigged~ my mother was not allowed to go!  

When I married, I was just shy of turning twenty-three, and just like any twenty-three year old, I thought I knew everything!!  Which is not the point here, however I just thought I would let you know.   

The point here is that when I married, I thought that my world would change.  I thought my new family was great... the best.  They were nice to me, yet as time went by, I always felt uncomfortable around them.  As if I was not being accepted 100% by them.  What made me think this?  Well my "wonderful" mother-in-law made me feel welcomed by still having a wedding picture hanging of my husband, her son, and his first wife!!! YUP!!  And I would not be surprised if it is still hanging there right now.  I'd have to ask wife number three... Yes, I was wife number two.  It was not as if he was way older than me... he was merely seven months older than me.

Then my son was born and I felt a little acceptance, until my father-in-law passed away.  Then it went downhill from there.  Even after my second son was born, that stupid picture still hung!  

My husband really started cheating on me after his father passed, galavanting and God knows what else, and when I found out, I could not trust him- and he did not care!... well, as he put it...

 it was MY FAULT and my problem if I did not trust him anymore!

Fast forward to a few years ago... it had only been a couple of years since Dean and I were married and we took a trip to spend Christmas with his parents in Texas... We lived in California then... so it may have been around 2005 more or less...

I was sitting at the table talking about my past with my mother-in-law, now technically she is Dean's step-mother, however she is mom.  This in no way is meant to disrespect the memory of his biological mother.  The fact is that she does not treat Dean any different than her own two sons (with Dean's dad,) and has behaved as a "mother" to him... which I witness on a daily basis now.  During our conversation she said more or less the following to me, and it has stuck with me ever since...

What you have experienced is horrible, however, God is now making it up to you now by not giving you one, but two sets of in-laws, two families that love you very much and only good things will happen from now on.

Courtesy of Bing images

You see, both of Dean's parents divorced when he was still a toddler.  Both remarried and have been married for well over thirty years respectively.... 


How blessed am I to have two sets of in-laws that are FANTABULOUS!!!  I AM a part of these families, not just a "daughter-in-law"!  They are "mom" and "dad".  And when I speak of them and refer to them as my mother or father-in-law, well it just sounds very strange to me.  As a result, I know that after meeting them, my eyes opened to how truly dysfunctional my family really was!!


Earlier in 2005 Dean's biological mother passed away, and that was a great loss to me, as it was to everyone... for the three years that I knew her, she became by best friend!   We used to instant message every day, so much so that I would get in trouble at work because of it, even though I was still getting my work done.  One of my best memories of us, is that every Saturday I'd get up early, drive forty minutes to be in Malibu by 7:30am and we would do garage sales!

Courtesy of Bing images

I love and miss you so much Sally!!


Today, Dean and I have been married for over eight years, and just like any other marriage, we have had our ups and downs... however one thing has always been consistent... how wonderful he treats me and how wonderful his family is to me.


I am blessed to be a part of two most amazing families.  Let me tell you that they prove it to me on a daily basis!!


Thank you God!!  Thank you!!

Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God.  Ecclesiastes 5:19

Blessings to all!

332 days to go.

All contents herein are protected under Copyright laws and can not be used, altered or copied. All accounts herein are written by Cali-Gal/Carla B Karam and are true accounts of her life. Some names may be changed to protect the innocent.