I started this blog years ago with great intentions.  But life took a Turn, and I could barely cope with my own thoughts, much less get them out to others.  So what was the big turn? Divorce.  I had been married for 34 years, had eight children (who are now grown), and my last daughter graduated from high school.  Then my husband walked out.  I went through a deadly painful year-and-a-half divorce process and wondered, "What do I do with myself now?" 

While going through the divorce, I went back to school and studied more history.  I also studied some Chinese because I had a grandson who lived in China and spoke very little English. I was taking such a heavy course load and writing so many papers, that I had little time to think about what I was going through.  Of course, digging up and completing all the legal papers didn't help, but I still managed to ace all those classes.

Then it was time to move out of the house where I had thought I'd spend the rest of my life.  As I packed up years of memories and tried to decide what I should take and what I should leave, I thought I'd lose it. I left with a friend and moved to Texas.

One of my sons contacted me and said, "Mom, why don't you come live with me in China?  You need to get away. I said there was no way I'd do that to my daughter-in-law, Emily. She got on the phone and asked me to come.  I asked, "Do you really want your mother-in-law living with you?"  She said, "Of course! I think it will be fun!"  I thought, "I'm about the furthest thing from fun right now." But I packed again and moved to China. I'll talk about China and how it changed my views of family history in my next post.