My name is Amber. I am married to a wonderful man who has been a part of my life for over 15 years. He has stood by me through a university degree in sociology, a career downtown in the oil and gas industry which included two maternity leaves, running a dayhome out of our family house, the learning experience of two different home-based business ideas, and a total of four pregnancies each one delivering us the blessing of a healthy child. His commitment to us has never wavered through all the ups and downs these life events took us through. He has been my rock, my shoulder to cry on, and the hand that is always there to help me back up. Our children are blessed to call him dad and he daily invests all his resources into them.
This was not always the future we thought we would end up at. For starters, we got pregnant with our first child when I was 22, just after I finished my degree but before either of us were on a career path and before we were married. Coming from a strong Christian home, I dealt with feelings of shame, guilt, disappointment and a fierce desire to protect my unborn child. We got engaged shortly after and I moved into his parent's house with him but decided to hold off on the wedding until after all the turmoil of the unexpected pregnancy had passed.
Our first born, a son, served as an unbreakable bond between our families and relationships opened and grew. I was still mentally not in a healthy place and by the time our son was 7 months I had decided I needed to re-root myself so broke off the engagement and moved me and baby back to my parent's house. I started back to work and within the year had moved out to a rental place with my son and sister. Through out this time I maintained relationship with my not-yet-husband but did consider other relationships. All of which quickly ended as my man never gave up on me or us.
Just after our son turned 2, I bought a place and about the same time my not-yet-husband did also. We did a lot of learning and growing that year. By the following year he had sold his place and moved in with us. Again, I struggled trying to reconcile our living situation with by beliefs. We had many conversations and ultimately concluded that if we had succeeded in working on us this long we could commit to continue to do so. I patiently waited for the impending proposal which come one Saturday morning when our now 4 year old son was sent to me with this question, "Mommy, dad wants to know if you will marry him?"
Six months later we were married and happily planning our forever future together. The following spring our first daughter was born and two years later when we discovered we were pregnant again we decided to move from our small townhouse to a house in a family friendly community with easy access to the school and our families. We cut the timing rather close though as our 3rd child, 2nd daughter, was born two days after we took possession. It was after this maternity leave that I chose not to return to my job downtown and opened the dayhome. This past year saw the addition of our 4th child and 2nd son who was just as unexpected as our first but now we had the strength and experience to enjoy this sudden change to our lives.
That pretty much brings us to today. The recent change in our lives is a change in my husband's job which has allowed me to let go of the dayhome and pursue my heart of writing. It is my prayer that through this outlet I will be able to connect with other women and provide encouragement, support, and understanding no matter what is going on in their lives.
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