A July day 30 years ago, I came into this world. Nothing spectacular I’m sure, although my parents may see it differently. I had a pretty standard childhood for the most part and I always had what I needed, with some extras, but nothing that too many other American children would be jealous of.
My parents were divorced when I was pretty young. I don’t remember life much before then. A lot of people would likely say that having their divorced parents made their lives more difficult, and to some extent, I would agree. But I gained a second mother and father with my stepparents. Both them helped to shape me to be the person I am today. It’s hard to know exactly how I would have turned out otherwise, but I think I’m better for the entire thing.
When my mom and stepdad were married, we lived at the house that he had out in the country. It was old and in need of some serious help, but he know what he was doing and honestly, it’s hard to believe how far it has come. I think it has honestly kept me from even considering a house that requires a serious amount of rehab.
Along with my stepdad came three stepsisters. For stepsisters, I got pretty lucky. We would sometimes stay at their grandparents house (which I adopted as my grandparents as well). It was a large farm house out in the country. It kind of had that scary feeling to it only because of the sheer size. It didn’t help that one of the stepsisters told me that Jeffrey Dahmer lived in the closet of the room that we all slept in.
I would mark my first personal experience with Jesus as having happened at their house. Grandma tucked us in and asked us if we had a personal relationship with Jesus, and then she would pray with us. At that age I had no idea what that meant or how it would later impact me. I am grateful that she cared enough to take the time to pray with us though at such an early age.
This was only the start of my walk and planted the seed for future growth and opportunities.