A Dad Born Again

I am the father of four beautiful children; ages seven, six, five and four. One boy and three girls. Three weeks ago I was thrown into full-time single fatherhood when their mother decided that she was leaving to be with her new lover and moving literally one thousand miles away from me and, consequently our kids. She didn't ask to take any of them with her, just told me I needed to move them all in with me.

A week later she was in his truck, driving down the road to her new life, leaving us behind to pick up the pieces with not even a forwarding address or phone number.

Wow. Bitter much? As angry as I feel towards her, I find myself thankful. I am thankful I've been given this opportunity to impact my children's lives in a way I didn't believe I could. Before this, and during my eight years of marriage to their mom, I'd been the typical Dad. I went to work forty plus hours a week to support our ever growing family and missed a lot. But that's what you do I guess. Mom stayed at home with the kids and I worked almost every day.

This last year hasn't been very kind and on top of my separation from my soon to be ex, I went through bankruptcy and also lost my job. Subsequently, I'm not in the greatest financial position or anything position right now but I am still incredibly positive about what our future holds.

These last two weeks have been a great eye opener for me. Prior to our three girls, aged six, five and four moving in with me, they lived with their mom full time. I lived in my small apartment with our oldest son who is seven. We're still in that same small apartment but now it feels a little smaller.

We keep more than busy. The two eldest are in school, second grade and first. This is their third school within the last seven months so it's an understatement to say that it's been tough assimilating.

I've gone from mom getting the kids ready each morning for eight years to being on the front line, physically dressing them if necessary (not my son, he hates that) and pulling them to school by 8:20am each morning. We've been late more than a few times, but haven't missed a day and I am so proud of my two school kids for how brave they're being.