...16 (in days gone by)...

 In Days Gone By:
19.August.2018
 "A very merry un-anniversary to me!"
14 years ago, I came through the fire...I was scorched and scarred and broken into a thousand pieces. But I was free...and so was my son. On this day, all those years ago, a beautifully thoughtful person gave me the one best piece of advice I have ever received. She told me to take the day off...to pick my son up and reclaim the day for us....for our family that wouldn't be here had I not willingly walked into that line of fire.
18 years ago, there was a dress...and an aisle...family and friends, and hope~faith~trust.

18 years later, there's today: Wellerding Family Day. There's a boy who made my life worth the living of it....there's a family-beautifully broken and down to just two but so imperfectly perfect...there's the hope we have for OUR future, the faith we have in each other to get through anything, and the trust that comes from knowing there is no moment so bad that we can't rise above it if we support one another wholeheartedly.
There are likely those of you who don't understand...who never will...why my son is such a miracle to me...why I speak so passionately about him: He might not have been. I almost lost him. His life was almost nothing, when my husband pushed me down the stairs.
Abuse leaves wounds beyond the visible ones. I walk through this life missing pieces of myself. I always will. That pretty girl in her pretty dress with stars in her eyes haunts me still...

But there is something important: I won! I got out...and away...and I saved the two of us. And I get every damn day of the rest of my life to celebrate THAT. To live this life with this son...this family.
And that girl...in that dress...she's the reason we get today. She took those steps down that aisle and created a marriage that created a family.
So every year, we see my wedding anniversary on the calendar and in bright bold ink we write "Family Day".
Go ahead...congratulate us! Wish us well!