It was the early 1990's, and I was waiting for my Marine Corps enlistment to end. I had planned on returning to my home state, moving in with a friend from high school, and pursuing a college degree in Electrical Engineering at the University. Those plans all changed when the woman I was dating got pregnant. We didn't plan on getting married for the sake of the kid, but after reviewing our options, we ended up marrying anyway. On the same day I was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, my first daughter was born.
Since I was discharged and my wife was still working, I became a house husband, and took part-time jobs at night. Being a house husband was one of the best jobs I ever had. The pay sucked, but it was easy and rewarding; and I reveled in watching my infant daughter grow.
My wife, also a Marine, was scheduled to be discharged in August of the next year. We were stationed in Orange County, CA, but we both decided that it would best for our daughter to leave Souther California. So we came back to my home town. The wife didn't like small-town life, and we soon moved to a larger city -- rather, what passes for a city in this area.
That move nearly split us up, but fate intervened again, as she became pregnant with our second child. We were both going to school and working at the time. Things were hard, but every night when I got home, my girls would smile and want to play with me, and things were instantly better.
After a while, we finished school and bought a house. The family was officially part of the American Dream, and part of the rat race. Not too long after that, my wife decided she didn't want to stay married anymore.
As you can imagine, I was crushed, but nowhere nearly as devastated as my girls were. Everything they had known, their entire world, was being rocked to its foundation. The knowledge that I had to be strong for them was what kept me together. I don't remember much about that period of my life, except for remembering how bad I felt; I never want to feel that way again.
But children are resilient. They adjusted to our new life, which allowed me to move on as well. Things are back to normal. We laugh, play, joke and fight like any family does.
Kids... they're cute, smart, argumentative, imaginative, stubborn, playful, lazy... They bring a world of confusion, happiness, innocence, wisdom... They're the most frustratingly fun experience that God can give. When He said "Be fruitful and multiply," God was giving us a blessing. On those trying days, I don't know how much of his "blessing" I can handle, but on the fun days, I realize that it's one of His greatest gifts.
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