11 On My Own

Yesterday I returned from work to find a package had arrived in my absence. 11 On My Own had finally arrived.

This is a book written by Kristin Luscia, a single, Catholic, mother of eleven children!

I read the book cover-to-cover last evening while my husband was out with half our children and the other half were watching a movie.

Having known Kristin for years, online, I was familiar with much of her story. I remember when Ted left her, I remarked to my husband that I was stunned. Then when I heard about Ted's girlfriend, his abandonment of his parental responsibilities both in rearing and supporting his children, and his manipulation of the court system, I was left shaking my head wondering that men like this actually exist in real life. But I did not even know the half of it.

As Kristin tells her story, some are sure to wonder if this all actually happened, it seems so impossible that a man would father so many children and yet behave so abominably. It also appears to be fallacious that the court systems could abuse a woman with so many dependents, who was abandoned by her husband, stripped of all financial assets, and even lost the home the family lived in through this abandonment!

But it is all true. I remember it all happening.

Her story is candid, she exposes her soul for the reader. I read the book and wondered how she could reveal so many intimate details, so publicly. I wondered how she could let out her deepest secrets, more than we had even realized, why she wouldn't want to leave her past in the past, let sleeping dogs lie.

Kristin doesn't have the luxury of sleeping dogs. She has pit bulls pursuing her, biting at her heels, and there are more than one. There is of course Ted, but also the guardian ad litem, the judges, some of the attorneys in the process, and even family members who are attacking.

Given all of this, a weaker woman would run and hide. But not Kristin. She doesn't hide, she finds a way to move on. She faces her battles head on and she says on her blog in an entry dated May 13, 2010, "My life has always been an open book, anyway. I never really had anything to hide. My book lays my soul and my entire existence bare, all my deep dark secrets are exposed. I like it that way. I don't lie, it's that simple. It's so much easier not to. "

The book is written in a conversational tone, much like a blog, colloquially. She has shown us the mistakes of her past, and how she pulled herself up by her bootstraps through faith, determination, and fortitude. Many have called her a religious zealot. Without faith she would have collapsed under the anguish and burden, perhaps even surrendered to despair.

This book relates a family drama which is painful, but through it all Kristin is able to keep her children happy and grounded, what all parents strive for. She admits to a litany of mistakes in her past. Her book is about divorce and how to survive it. Even if you are not going through a divorce, I would recommend reading it. Again from her blog, in response to criticism about her book, "I am not husband-bashing. Really. I simply state the facts as honestly as possible. I think people should know just what the "Justice" system does to families. Especially traditional, large, Catholic ones. And I also think people should know just what a "man" is capable of doing to his own family."

Go to Amazon and buy her book. Not only because it is an amazing and on-going true story, but because the proceeds will help support those children. And, check in with Kristin, follow the continuing events on her blog. Tell her I sent you.