Well I got married when I was 19 and pregnant with my first son. I gave up everything for my husband. I handled everything from keeping the house in order taking care of a newborn and supporting his dreams of becoming a rockstar on a minium wage salary.

We did start at the bottom. Renting rooms and all. After our son turned 2, things in his mind were changing about us. I thought that everything was fine. I went to his work and dropped off his dinner and said, "Luv ya babe, see you when you get home."

Well, he never came home that night. He didn't come home for over a week. He wasn't at work, hospital or in jail. His family claimed that they didn't know where he was. Two weeks went by and then he called. He told me that he wasn't in love with me anymore and that he had met someone else and started a new job somewhere else.

I finally found it all out. He met someone who was barley legal and who had a way better body than I did. She had no children and no self respect. Of course.

I felt like my life was over. I couldn't understand why he left everything was fine and perfect. It took me a year to start on my own. It was so unbearable. But I had to do it.

After I was settled he started to call me and say all these things like she doesn't cook or clean or nothing. So I decided to be nice and let him cry on my shoulder. Well she ended up cheating on him. He was so heartbroken. I told him, "What did you expect? You left me with a toddler so that you could go and be with her. She knew that you were married with a kid and she didn't care. That's why she didn't care when she left you for someone else."

For years he begged me to forgive and to give him another chance. I never did.

Now five years have passed - I did meet someone else and I did have another baby boy. But this guy was too big of mama's boy. And abusive. So I left him. I struggled again.

But now today I can say that I just had a major company offer me a job. I'm moving back to my hometown with my two boys and I'm happier than ever. I'm doing what they both thought that I couldn't do without them. I'm living my life to the fullest. Not just for me, but for my boys. And if life wasn't hard and if it didn't always have a bump in the road, then I just wouldn't be who I am today.

A woman. A strong woman. So that's my story.

-- Christina M.