Comfortably Uncomfortable

On November 3rd, 2016, I voted in my very first American Presidential election. However, its not that moment that made the experience a memorable one. I (painfully) remember November 4th, 2016, like it was yesterday. I was 8 months pregnant with Lily, and I had gone to bed late the night before, flipping between news outlets for different updates from states that were slowly starting to call their election results. I had gone to bed with hope that all the polls were right, and that a Clinton win was nothing but a given. Now, I was by no means a big Clinton fan, but as a human being, I found it impossible to vote for the alternative, whose behavior and narrative went so strongly against every moral and ethical value I hold in my heart. That dreadful morning, when I turned the news on, it felt like a giant brick had fallen and cracked my head open. My voice was gone, my whole body ached, which was a different ache from that of my already long and difficult pregnancy. I held onto my belly

This might be one of the most personal posts you will find on this blog. I don’t write it as an update on my life, or for pity or attention. I write it because the lessons learned from the experiences are lessons that should be able to help those going through the same struggles we have gone through. As many of you already know, on April 24th, Stephen was admitted into the hospital. The following five weeks were plagued by tears, pain, endless waiting for calls from doctors, fights with doctors, uncertainty, anxiety… anything and everything you can think of that comes with a loved one fighting for their life without answers. The experience allowed us to discern who are the ones who will always be there for us, while showing true colors of those whose motives can be questionable at best, and dangerous at their worst. We were blessed to have Stephen fully recover. And while he is well and healthy, our marriage did not have the same result. The weeks following his discharge were dark. W