That all important first post

Once upon a time there was a wild pagan child born into a staid Christian family. This girl loved her family and so for a time she tried to conform but eventually she rebelled and ran from those she loved to find her own path. Her journey was filled with bad choices and hardship but every step on this road had a lesson for her and she embraced the knowledge and grew wise. One day she realized she was ready to share her journey and she found the perfect man to walk beside her. Together they raised some children on a small farm where they tried to live their lives in a way that honored the Earth and they all lived happily ever after.
Sounds pretty doesn't it? The real scoop is that I left home at 16 to marry just so I could get out of the house. A year later I had a baby and felt like I was being buried. When the beatings and verbal abuse started it was almost a relief because suddenly I could feel something again. Once again the answer for me was to run. I ran. My daughter and I had some real adventures and my daughter grew up to be a wonderful human in spite of my .....flighty parenting. I really did have an epiphany of sorts and decided that I was whole and complete. Not one second later Greg showed up in my life and we were married soon after to a Greek chorus of "it'll never last...." We had some adventures and two more children in spite of the doctors who said it was impossible. Then we sort of backed into fostering when we were asked to help out with a family member who had lost their very sick child to Social Services. Eventually we were cleared as foster parents but it was apparent that the child was never going to be able to leave his safe hospital room so we took other sick children into our home. It was a very rewarding and selfish act as I loved being the one responsible for "fixing" these broken babies and occasionally a broken family. But we quickly found that there is no line of people waiting to adopt these babies when they're abandoned by their biological relatives. Of course we'd grown to love them but were we really the right place for these children? We didn't have a lot of money or things to give them but there was no place for them to go if not us so we adopted five of our babies and quit fostering before we adopted the whole world.
So, we moved to a small farm where our kids could run and play. We rescued some animals and grew a massive garden to feed everyone. I live my life in a Pagan way but teach my children about all religions so one day when they are whole and complete they can choose wisely.
And so my story comes to an end. Greg and I are still together 23 years after we first heard we wouldn't make it. We adore each other as much today as we did then and enjoy every day together.