A VERY BRIGHT FUTURE...

Join me this post in wishing my newest pup a happy ANNIE-versary. You see, it’s a year ago today she joined our family.

I’ve never really written about that time before but let’s just say, as I boarded a plane to the Caribbean, my daughter boarded a Greyhound bus with her then boyfriend, to return to Alberta. It was a very emotional time for our family, as she'd dismissed us from her new life for being vocal about our feelings about her idiotic shithead, I mean future 'husband'.

As you can imagine, at the time I needed a 3rd dog running around the house like I needed a hole in the head but with my daughter gone, I needed an outlet so that I didn’t focus on what had ultimately unfurled; and Annie was exactly that. Celebratory wishes to my pup aside, I can't begin to describe the joy we felt when she expressed that she wanted to returned to Ontario less than six months later. Once we understood what had transpired, we had her home in a little better than 72 hours, with a promise not to ever dwell on our time apart. We never have.

It pains me to remember just how emotionally spent and somewhat broken she was when we picked her up at the airport. She’d invested her trust and love to a person that was not only mentally unstable but extremely abusive. As silly as this may read, as a mother, the first telltale sign for me how lost she was, was that she’d dyed her beautiful long curly hair jet black.

Well, as the snow begins to fall a year later, I believe that she has made great strides in healing. She's working hard at a full time job, made some exciting new friendships, not to mention nurtured and re-established solid friendships she’d left behind. More importantly, she's finally let certain people go. Those that have ultimately lied and betrayed her over and over again.

Sweetie taking a good look at her very bright future.
TAKEN: NOVEMBER 14th, 2015
(Photo Credit: Our other GOOB)

How cool is it that almost a year after her leaving our home, she posted this photo that I am sharing today. One of her best friends (and someone very dear to our family) had taken it and I absolutely love it. 

So many things come to mind for me when I look at the picture but first and foremost it tells me just how far my daughter has come.

The quite, teary mouse, that returned home, has now reverted in the firecracker we know and love. Though there are (and probably always will be) scars, I think she realizes that her future is much brighter than the darkness that surrounded us a year ago.

As an aside, she allowed me to strip the black hair dye from her hair yesterday afternoon. As I sit here and type with tears rolling down my face, I can assure you my tears a year later are much different. They are truly tears of joy.

You see, in my eyes, something as simple as changing her hair colour... is just another small and simple step to her finding her way back to her very loving and confident self for good.