I finally told them....

Well, now I am just waiting for the bloodwork to come back. I am still exhausted. Friday night we had a Christmas party with a few friends--it was a really good time. Saturday, I got blood taken, ran a few errands, and then my parents and my youngest sister and Chris's parents, sisters, and youngest brother---and sis's fiance- came over for a family Christmas dinner. It was a lot of fun. But I was so dizzy that it was a wee bit frustrating for me. There was also some emotional stress going on. Here's what happened this past weekend and a bit more of my past.....

I had decided to share something that happened to me a long time ago with my mom and my dad. I told my sister B last week. She handled it well. I was nervous about how my parents will respond but they did perfectly. I don't want to get overly specific about what happened but I will share this. An adult person in my extended family inappropriately touched me the evening of a holiday celebration when I was in my early teens. This was highly traumatic to me and I attempted to repress this sexual trauma the rest of my teenage years. However, when I got to college, I knew I needed to deal with it and found a safe place to release my feelings and talk about what had happened.

Saturday night when Chris and I sat down with my mom and dad, I was nervous but ready. I prefaced the conversation by sharing with them that what I was sharing with them was not of vengeance or anger but more out of concern for my sister, other family members, and if God should bless us with more children, for their sake. My parents handled it absolutely perfectly. I cried as I finished telling them but I was okay too...I felt secure and safe. Chris later on told me how proud he was of me---something that really made me feel good and made me feel so safe with him. My mom and dad were both empathic. I did not push them to process or ask what they decided to do with the information. That's up to them. I simply needed to share with them to get this secret out of head and to reassure myself that other children would be watched and not put in the same situation.

So that's that...
I definitely feel stronger than I did......I had no clue I could do it!

Praise God who has given me strength to do things that I never could have done on my own and who has sent His Holy Spirit to counsel and comfort me as He did on Saturday night. I felt God just wrapping His arms around me and telling me that He loved me and was with me and I was His child, and safe and secure! Glory to God, the Awesome Father, the Son who saves the world, and the Holy Spirit who is with us always.....Our God truly is awesome.

~Shannon