{"id":3804,"date":"2017-03-24T20:44:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T20:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?p=3804"},"modified":"2020-08-26T19:06:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T19:06:41","slug":"divorce-birth-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2017\/03\/divorce-birth-announcement.html","title":{"rendered":"A Divorce Birth Announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>When you are getting a divorce you involve all the people who love you. They worry. It&#8217;s natural.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>When you experience a marathon &#8211; &#8216;divorce on steroids&#8217; they worry more AND you exhaust them.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I spent my whole life making responsible decisions. That is, minus a few my high school and college BFF&#8217;s might be able to share. Suffice it to say my whole adult life.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2017\/03\/IMG_8612-e1490383418504.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3806 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/374\/2017\/03\/IMG_8612-e1490383418504-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8612\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>I was a planner, a saver and a person who always had a backup plan. The natural result of being raised in a single parent household.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>All that went out the window when I made a man mad by divorcing him.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>All the years of saving and investing and being responsible. It&#8217;s all gone. Worse, I have been held hostage for three and a half years. No matter what decision I make there is a counter repercussion. Regardless, I still made the best and most responsible decisions each and every step of the way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And then came yesterday.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I made my first bad GOOD decision of divorce.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Some will judge me and others will understand.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My life and my children&#8217;s lives have been on hold. Waiting on the actions of one person who dictates our future. Where we will live, when we can move on and more. One day I think we are staying in the house, one day I think we will move to a friend&#8217;s basement, and another I am looking at rentals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The truth is I have been planning this birth for a long time.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2017\/03\/IMG_8611.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3807 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/374\/2017\/03\/IMG_8611-169x300.png\" alt=\"IMG_8611\" width=\"169\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>I just felt the timing was off given my ongoing debacle.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I initially looked into fostering rescues.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A perfect alternative. Love and then deliver the cuties to someone new. But one rescue didn&#8217;t like that an electric fence borders my two-acre property (even though I told them I would never put the puppy on the electric fence &#8211; I would walk it). Yet another didn&#8217;t like that I believed in crate training. Another said it was mandatory I attend every weekend adoption event &#8211; all day both days. Something I couldn&#8217;t do at the time because of my children&#8217;s weekend obligations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No matter, I tried to foster one last time and never heard back after filling out the form. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Now mind you, I worked in a kennel affiliated with a veterinary hospital from the age of fourteen until twenty-one when I graduated from college. About a decade ago, I fostered probably ten dogs but that rescue was farther away and hence, why I was looking for a local one now. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Let&#8217;s just say I am confounded and frustrated by the escalated fostering process. I could have housed and temperament tested dozens of dogs in the time I wasted investigating it. I think it would have been easier to just adopt.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>But responsible Colleen was being responsible. I should wait.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2017\/03\/IMG_8620-e1490388197803.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3811 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/374\/2017\/03\/IMG_8620-e1490388197803-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8620\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Then low and behold after two years on and off of talking to rescue organizations, I drive past my Hazy&#8217;s birthplace on National Dog Day no less.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>And like diamonds glistening in the mid-day sun, there lay six golden members of Hazel&#8217;s kin.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>A box headed beefcake finds her way towards me.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And I knew she was mine &#8211; or should I say ours.<\/p>\n<p><strong>After all, in my divorce prayers the night before I did pray for miracles to begin appearing in our lives.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Anyone who knows me, knows I am going nowhere without my Hazel so wherever we move it is simply one more family member to tag along.<\/p>\n<p><em>The truth? I have hocked jewelry for far less these past several years.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>This time I did it for love.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>If you fall into the category of shock and judgment please do what I like to tell my high school BFF&#8217;s to do when I can&#8217;t make a night out &#8211; &#8211; Do the next best thing talk about me.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you are my family &#8211; &#8211; well okay, you all deserve to flip out a little after all I have put you through with worry.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>And if you are one of &#8216;the understanders&#8217; we really need to give this sweet chunk of golden beefcake a name.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Any suggestions????<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I need to put it on her birth announcement.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2017\/03\/IMG_8614-e1490388232356.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3812 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/374\/2017\/03\/IMG_8614-e1490388232356-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8614\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Photo courtesy of Human Pet Mother)<\/p>\n<p>Follow me on Facebook @Colleen Orme National Columnist<\/p>\n<p>Medium @colleenorme<\/p>\n<p>Instagram @colleenOrme<\/p>\n<p>E-mail: Colleen.Sheehy.Orme@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you are getting a divorce you involve all the people who love you. They worry. It&#8217;s natural. When you experience a marathon &#8211; &#8216;divorce on steroids&#8217; they worry more AND you exhaust them. I spent my whole life making responsible decisions. That is, minus a few my high school and college BFF&#8217;s might be&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":613,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,108],"tags":[63,2,62,410,110],"class_list":["post-3804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorce-2","category-new-beginnings","tag-animals","tag-divorce","tag-dogs","tag-national-dog-day","tag-new-beginnings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Divorce Birth Announcement - How Great Thou Part<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2017\/03\/divorce-birth-announcement.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Divorce Birth Announcement - How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When you are getting a divorce you involve all the people who love you. They worry. It&#8217;s natural. When you experience a marathon &#8211; &#8216;divorce on steroids&#8217; they worry more AND you exhaust them. I spent my whole life making responsible decisions. 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