Angels Among Us

I mentioned in my first post that I had to write an essay for a scholarship. It had to be about what I am most grateful for in my life. Well I have decided to share it with everyone. I especially hope that it will reach my "angels" and they will know how much I appreciate them.. Here is the essay:

Angels Among Us

How do you pinpoint one thing you are grateful for in your life? I could easily say my two precious daughters, my family or my friends. If I was writing this about 9 months ago, that would most certainly be my answer. But my life did a complete turn-around and now I am most grateful for so much more. Don’t get me wrong, my family and friends are still towards the top of my list.

This past June, I found courage and determination that I never contemplated that I possessed. I decided to escape my abusive marriage. I have never been more petrified in my life. I had nowhere to go, I had a very limited support system because my husband had isolated me for so long. I literally left with nothing but the clothes on mine and my daughter’s backs. We ended up in a battered women and children’s shelter. It sounds funny to say but this decision turned out to be the best one I have ever made in my life. The staff at the shelter helped me to get on my feet again. We were able to get our own place within six weeks. The advocates were there every step of the way.

But, how does one start out with nothing? No one can fathom the overwhelming feeling when you have to fill a home with all the basic needs from scratch. I had been controlled for so long; I didn’t know where to begin. This is where my gratefulness comes in my life now.

I will never be able to individually name or recall everyone that reached out to me. Friends, family, classmates, church members, organizations and mere strangers took me under their wings and helped me to learn to fly on my own again. I was able to obtain my own home. As I look around my home, there is no crook or cranny that I can look in that I do not see something that was given to us in order to make this house a home. My entire needs were met by donations and gifts. I was even provided groceries for our first month. I no longer had nothing.

I will never be able to repay the acts of kindness that I have been shown. The best thing I can do is pay it forward. These individuals will never know how a simple donation of a bathroom towel or silverware changed my life. I no longer live as a victim of domestic abuse but as a survivor. They have helped me gain my confidence back or I would never be able to be back in school and succeeding. I am sure they think they just provided for a household need but it is so much deeper than that.

The country music group Alabama sings a song called “Angels Among Us”. The lyrics say it all for me. The words talk about angels being among us and they come to us in our darkest hours in order to teach us how to live. The individuals that stepped into my life 9 months ago are my angels. They definitely came at my darkest hour and because of them I am living again. For this, I am forever grateful. So, at this point in my life, when asked what am I most grateful for in my life: my answer would most definitely have to be “My Angels”. My Angels were lifesaving answers to many of mine and my daughter's prayers.