"Life with....?"

We all have our own stories. We all have our own dreams. We all have our own thoughts.
Part of having our own stories, is having our own flaws. Now, for each person, their flaws vary. No family is perfect, either. "Life with non-bilogical parents" is a different story than "life with a single mom." "Life with a drunk uncle," "life with 6 younger sisters," "life with a family of 4," "life with twins," are all different from each other. The list could go on and on, but to be serious, they're all just different.

My life? Well, only PART of my story is "life with divorced parents." This shouldn't necessarily make anyone feel bad, nor draw attention to myself, but it's just something I live with. It's part of my struggle, and I share it with many other families.

Now, going to be a junior this upcoming fall, makes it almost 8 years since my parents split. They've always had split custody. I've always had two homes. They're not the same. Actually, they're completely different.  My dad has a fiancé, and lives with her in a gorgeous, dark brown house with a pool in the back. My mom also has a fiancé, and lives in an open, charming, white house with big flower pots in the front yard. They're both my family. They're both my houses. They're both mine, technically.

Some people say it would be great to have two of everything. "You get twice the amount of gifts on Christmas," "You get double the amount of birthday parties," "You have a bigger wardrobe." Okay, yeah, stuff like this is true, but there comes with complications in a situation like this.

I could not explain the amount of times I say "I left that at mom's," or, "I thought it was dad's weekend." Things slip your mind, and not to mention if you're in the middle of high school trying to juggle stress, school, friends, family, and soon to be a job. Someone asks if they can borrow something of mine, right? They ask for one specific sweatshirt, or one specific movie. My response? "Sorry, but it's at my mom's." Obviously this isn't all the time, but it deals with the same situation. Everything is split, and nearly everything is double.

Now, I could sit and yack all I want about "how hard life can be." But you know what? If you take something hard, give it some blessing, you can learn to use it for your own good. This can do with any other struggles, flaws, sins, and hardships families/friends might have. It might get frustrating, and it might never be solved, but you can always turn it into a hard blessing.

Hard blessing: A blessing that deserves more credit than it is given. A blessing that is difficult to handle, but without it, you would be nothing. A blessing that God gives you to use, rather than hate it.