I have been invited to participate in telling my blogging quest by Semantically Driven, so here goes.

My blogging quest.

I began my blogging quest for two reasons. First, I needed to get some of my pain out. I was hurting deeply. My life had been turned upside down by an unjust legal system, a lousy attorney, and an evil ex. I was devastated. I had no one to turn to. I read online where things like this happened, to real people, not just stories, but I could find no one to turn to talk things out. To tell my story to. Even folks I knew for ages, people my sister worked with, they all started wondering if I hadn't done something wrong since I lost custody. It did not seem to occur to people that this does happen. Shit happens to good people. That seems to be the way it works. Sometimes the bad guy wins a round.

Secondly, I wanted to be a source of hope for other moms in this situation. I made plans to use my blog as an outlet, but also to reach people to give them hope. If I can make it through my situation, then you can make it through yours. I also want to change the laws. I want to do my best to help other moms keep their kids. No one should be diagnosed with MSBP. It is a witch-hunt*. It will take a strong person to change these laws. I want to be that person. If I can help save one child and mother's life and prevent this kind of emotional turmoil, then I will feel that I have done my part. There actually are cases of children dying after being removed from their mother's care after losing custody from being labeled MSBP. I want to stop this from happening. Ever.

My blog then changed course a little bit when I started trying to save money. I was posting deals that I found from fellow "hounds" (from the Grocery Challenge on MSN money). I was spending less time focusing on my story and more time on the "deals" I was getting. I do still post about my son, but as I don't get to see him everyday, I don't have the daily stories to tell.

I don't know exactly what I expected for blogging. I do know that what I get out of it now is far different than what I got out of it originally. I have read from many bloggers that the comments are what you want. I won't lie, I enjoy comments, but what I like more is watching the counter go up. I like to check the stats and see how long people were on my site to make sure it was not an accidental click and that they left immediately. I just like knowing that people stopped by. Comments are always appreciated, but I am always just thankful for a visit.

I have not really had any adversity, but I keep my blog anonymous, and I only recently took it public. It began as private and was not found by search engines. I did not want my ex or his atty to stumble on it. Now I don't care if they find it or not. I do not use our real names anyway. I think coming up with new topics is totally an adventure though!

The one thing that I did not expect was the expanse. I have had visitors from all over the world. This just blows my mind. I don't advertise anywhere about my blog, I just listed it with a few other blogs and next thing you know, the whole world is visiting. Not really. My numbers are no where near what a lot of other blogs get, but it is still amazing to me none the less.

I will continue to blog for the foreseeable future. I want to continue to chronicle money saving ideas. We all could use those, especially these days, but especially struggling single moms. I also will continue to chronicle my journey in getting my son back, and the little joys that we get right now. I most definitely will chronicle my journey to changing laws. This needs to be done, and why not me? I want to continue learning about blogging and all that it entails. Maybe even getting my own domain someday.

I don't know where I see blogging going. I have had the site for a while, but have only recently gotten more interested in frequent posting. I have a lot to learn about it in the meantime. Hopefully, it does not change faster than I can learn!

I chose my title, Life is hard-just keep swimming because that is the essence of life. It is hard, but do not give up. We all have to get through it, and we can. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming....Now you have that song and Dory stuck in your head, don't ya?


*I was going to say it is a witch-hunt by a bunch of men, but that makes me sound like a man-hater. I am not a man-hater, just a "hater" of folks who use made up medical jargon to hurt another and benefit themselves. If one researches MSBP, you will discover that the man that "discovered" it has been discredited and cases in which he testified against women-BTW, women are the only ones labeled with MSBP-are now being re-heard and the women are getting their kids back. MSBP is not even allowed any more in England and Australia in court cases.