The End of an Era

Well, the end of an era has happened in my life. Yesterday, my husband and I made the official decision that I would not go back to being a flight attendant. It was such a hard decision that invoked many tears, but I am closing this door in my life. You see, I had wanted to be a flight attendant from the age of 11. I started putting in applications to airlines while I was in college, but the airlines were all in a hiring freeze for several years. I spent 3 1/2 years after graduating from college trying to figure out what else I might want to do with my life. Finally, when I was 26 my wish came true. I went for an interview, and they wanted me!! I became a flight attendant for Delta, worked out of New York and Cinncinati and saw/did some amazing things. I LOVED my job!! Life hands out curve balls, though, and I was thrown many of them over the next several years. I had three injuries to my back in a year and a half, and my health took a downward spiral from there. I was out of work on disability, would go back to work and get hurt again, out on disablility again, etc. I was about to go back to work again, then 9/11 happened. This changed so many people's lives, including mine. Delta was trying to get people off payroll by offering leave of absenses, so I decided to take a 5 year leave to try to heal my body. After a couple of jobs where I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I finally started a job selling gifts and stationery. Once again, I found something that I LOVED!! I still never wanted to give up on my dream of being a flight attendant, though. I truly never thought that I would get a call back to Delta, but low and behold in Nov. 2006 I was called back to do what I had always wanted to do. I was scheduled for training in the Spring of 2007. I quit my job selling stationery and gifts to go to Atlanta for Delta training. More unexpected events prevented me from completing the class. Over the next several months, they would put me in classes when they had them available in order for me to finish my training. The last several months have been extremely stressful wondering when I would finally go back to work, building our new home and suffering from even more health problems. Some of those health problems included losing 2 pregnancies in a 9 month period of time. After having daily headaches for almost 6 months, I also discovered that I was suffering from chronic daily migraines. I have been going through test after test, MRI's and lots of different meds to try to find the best option for me. Yesterday, Mike and I went to a reproductive endocrinologist. We both had blood drawn to check for chromosome abnormalities. Next week I will have more blood work done, and then in the next couple of weeks I will go to the hospital for an X-ray of my female reproductive parts. After going to the doctor yesterday, we made a decision together that we want to concentrate on having a family. It's not in the cards for me to go back to traveling all of the time. I need to be home with my husband. My life has changed. I have more than myself to think about now. As much as I wanted to go back to traveling the world, I want to be a mother more. I have shed so many tears about closing this door in my life, but God has different plans for me. I am just sure that he is going to open a whole set of new doors for me. It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life....