Mari's Journaling Power Blog | Journaling Journeys

A Year of Journaling and Journeying

Around this time a year ago, I faced a fork stuck in the road. To stay in my council home and attempt to go back to a full time teaching job; or continue counselling training, keep the pony and instead let my home go to the next person on the council homing list. Teaching had made me ill in the past, emotionally, which then manifested physically and forced me to stop.  My flat and this area now reminded me of losing my foster daughter; whom I have know all her life because she is also my niece.

My sister's journey in life was turbulent and her resilience was tested to the extreme. She became severely mentally ill after one trauma too many and eventually her daughter was removed from her arms one night by the police. Social services placed her 10 year old daughter with a stranger, whilst my sister ran away and became a missing person for many years, before finally being diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and given the help she needed years ago. There was no father on the scene; he had been incarcerated for 15 years just after my niece was born. It took 10 months for my niece to come home to her family. Social services fought against me and looked through my past with a fine tooth comb. I had two medals for my country, having served in the Armed Forces, worked for two police forces and was at that time a secondary school teacher.

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