Wife, Mom, Woman

This post will be a my life story. Yes I could create a book about my life, but I'm just going to touch on the high points. My father is the baby of his family, and my mother is next to the baby. That means I was only a first for my parents,and the first grand-daughter for my foster grandparents.
My parents were high sweethearts. They married shortly after my father graduated, in 1967. At that time guys had to be 21 and girls 18. Dad had to have his parents sign for him to marry.
I was born 2 years later in august 1969,right in the middle of the Vietnam war. Dad was drafted, however do to elevated blood sugar was sent home. Since I was their first, there was a lot to learn. Like how to tell if you are in labor. When mom went into labor, she woke dad. Well guess what it's grandma's birthday. He drives to grandmas house at 4 am, not sure if mom is really in labor, and he had to give grandma her birthday present. After an hour, mom told him, if you are going to wake your mom you need to be doing it, my contractions are 5 mins apart. So he went in and woke grandma, and told her Shirley thinks she is in labor. Grandma ask how far apart are the contractions, he said 5 mins. Boy was grandma mad. She said get that girl to the hospital I don't want no baby born here. Dad said well I wanted to give you your birthday present. She said you are and if you don't hurry it's going to be in my kitchen.
So, off to the hospital, where they stopped moms contractions. They had a woman in labor that had already loss 2 baby during birth. That was ok, a few hours later I was born. Let me say up to this day, dad did not care what the baby was named. His only demand was that it could not be named after him, I was suppose to be Roberta Sue. So, now the story of how I got my name. Since Roberta was out, mom's next name was Kimberly. My foster grandmother wanted her to name me Susie, thank goodness my mom knew how to say no. Mom said I will give her middle name Sue. Ok so, I'm Kimberly Sue right, no. Since I was born on my father's mothers birthday he decided he wanted in on the name. He told mom he wanted grandmas name included. There was no way to work Margaret into my name, so I got grandmas middle name, which by the way is an Indian name. I became Kimberly Leota Sue. I have an Indian name to go with my heritage,a family name and 2 middle names like royalty.
Now, my dad had no boys, he was graced with 3 daughters. I became his "son". I was not allowed in dresses except for pictures and sunday church. I was in the garage with him all the time, working on cars. When I was 3 I knew every tool in his tool box.
1 week before my first birthday I got a sister. Again dad didn't care what the name was except she had to have 2 middle names, as you can see at this rate they were going to run out of names. My sister came home from the hospital on my birthday. I was sleeping at grandma's when they came in. I was excited but jealous. I would take her bottle, see mom had me potty trained and bottle broke before she was born. My new sisters name was Kendra Gretchen Renee.
My parents divorced in 1972. For a number of years it was mom and us girls. Then she met her 2nd husband. They were married in 1975, and had my brother in 1976. He was born the day after my 7th birthday. He was named after my step dad, no 2 middle names. His name is Donald Eugene 2. I had a real live baby doll, or so I thought. I have always been fiercly protective of him. During this time my dad was married twice. The first only lasted 6 months. The 2nd lasted about 10 years, and they had a daughter. This time dad was a little more involved in the naming. My baby sisters was named Christina Robin Joann. I was 5 1/2 when she was born, and I became a little mom. They decided it was useless to try and keep me from her. I rocked her, feed her, changed her. When she was a couple weeks old my mother invited dad and his wife in, so she could see the baby. Mom just about had a heart attack when I came walking in with her. Mom said you let her carry the baby, dad said try to stop her.
That was my early years, I grew up. I was a good student, made good grades. Then I became a teenager. At 13 I was madly in love with the pastor's son, who barely knew I was alive. At 14 I dated a guy that was 23. No mom was not excited. The summer between my freshman and sophmore year I moved in with Dad. I started hanging out with the wrong people. Started doing to wrong things. I met my husband during this time. He was probably not the best choice for me, but it turned my world around.
My biggest influence I had was my foster grandfather. He was a minster for years, however he had a stroke 2 years before I was born. I never got to hear him preach from the pulpit. I did hear a lot of sermons in his front room.
Now at age 43 I have 3 grown children, a grown step son, and 3 grandsons. I'm still married to my first true love. We have returned to church, and I'm trying to become a Godly wife. This has been a struggle for me. You will see why, when I post about my marriage. I thank God everyday for our dysfunctional family.