For all of you who've been-there-done-that, I welcome your advice, your tips, your recommendations for grabbing the bull by the horns and having a happy, content and full life after divorce. How did you start to heal and become whole again?
I'm just starting this horrible, all-consuming process -- one which I neither wanted nor chose. It was a complete sucker-punch shock and I've only recently raised the white flag to give up and accept that I'm getting a divorce. I'm losing my husband, my best friend. I'm losing my son (stepson whom I've helped raised since he was 3 -- he's now 12) whom I love as though he's my own. I'm losing my home. I'm losing my husband's family who has become my own. I'm losing my identity as a wife and mother, at 40, and now must figure out who I am again.
We are still living together and have not yet told my stepson. We're going to start mediation soon and hope to get things processing before telling my stepson in June when school is out. I'll then move away and start a completely different life.
I'm terrified. I feel like I'm being ripped apart at the seams. I'm having a rough time coping but am holding it together as best as I can "playing house" so that my stepson doesn't find out during his school year. But I'm trying to really prepare and equip myself as best as I can...
So I ask of you: What advice and tips can you give for starting a new life -- and finding happiness again? How did you start the "alone" process and what steps did you take to make it through and actually thrive?
I'm just starting this horrible, all-consuming process -- one which I neither wanted nor chose. It was a complete sucker-punch shock and I've only recently raised the white flag to give up and accept that I'm getting a divorce. I'm losing my husband, my best friend. I'm losing my son (stepson whom I've helped raised since he was 3 -- he's now 12) whom I love as though he's my own. I'm losing my home. I'm losing my husband's family who has become my own. I'm losing my identity as a wife and mother, at 40, and now must figure out who I am again.
We are still living together and have not yet told my stepson. We're going to start mediation soon and hope to get things processing before telling my stepson in June when school is out. I'll then move away and start a completely different life.
I'm terrified. I feel like I'm being ripped apart at the seams. I'm having a rough time coping but am holding it together as best as I can "playing house" so that my stepson doesn't find out during his school year. But I'm trying to really prepare and equip myself as best as I can...
So I ask of you: What advice and tips can you give for starting a new life -- and finding happiness again? How did you start the "alone" process and what steps did you take to make it through and actually thrive?