Sept. 3, 2024

Unshackled: My Sister’s Story

A look at my sister’s story and how it is now a 2 part radio drama

Here is the link: https://unshackled.org/program/hope-part-1/

Here is the link to Part 2: https://unshackled.org/program/hope-part-2/

Show Notes
Transcript

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective.

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This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central.

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Good morning everyone. It is Tuesday, September third, twenty twenty four.

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It is currently ten oh four am Central Time, and

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I am coming to you live from the Theology Central

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studio located right here.

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In Abilene, Texas.

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Now, when you meet someone, when you have that first

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meeting with someone, your first time meeting someone, you start talking,

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you start making sometimes lots of judgments about them, relatively quick.

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Right.

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You may notice the their accent, you may notice what

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they're wearing. You may notice how they look, You may

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notice how they talk, how they laugh, and sometimes you

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may make some quick assessments. And sometimes those quick assessments.

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Sometimes those quick judgments are well. Not only are they

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just very shallow and surface, but many cases they're they're

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not really correct. You You may think you can say

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this about a person, but sometimes you don't really know,

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and you you may may come to some conclusion about them.

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You may come to some conclusion that they that you

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think this about them, or you think this about them,

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but in many cases you don't really know much because

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you just met them. You cannot judge a person. I

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guess I'll use this phrase. You can't judge a person

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by the cover. People say you can't judge a book

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by the by its cover. You can't judge a person

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by its cover. You get to know you just start

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getting to know them that first interaction, that first meeting.

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You can't you can't judge them. You don't because you

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don't know them. Here's what we have to know about

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every person we meet. That what we see is there's

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there's really what we see doesn't tell the story because

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behind what we see and every person we meet, there

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is a bigger story. There is a deeper story, and

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what we simply see externally doesn't tell that story. Right

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you meet them, they may talk about this, they may

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talk about that, and you may draw some kind of conclusion,

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but you don't really know what you're talking about because

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that person is much more complex than the things we

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judge and the things we critique and the things we

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like and dislike. There is an entire story behind that face,

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behind that voice, behind that personality. There's a story that

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has made them into what they are, and there's lots

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of parts of that story. Now, if you've listened to

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this podcast again, many times people jump to conclusions about

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me and they think they'll say this or say that,

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or well, you think this or you think and it's like,

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you don't really, I don't know if you're in the

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position to draw those kinds of conclusions because you don't

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really know me. You've heard my voice, you've heard me

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express this or that, but trust me, there's much more

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to the person behind this microphone. There is a story,

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and I've shared some of my story, and my story

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I typically kind of break into certain parts.

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Right.

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There is the story of my life before my mother died, right,

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and I've told about how horrible much of it was.

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Things get so bad that I then I'm living with

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a different family because of how the situation was unraveling

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and just getting worse and worse and worse. And while

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I was living with another family, my mother died. So

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we have the part of my story is before my

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mother died, then my mother died. Then I don't really

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I don't always go into much detail of the immediate

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aftermath or everything that happened after my mother died. I

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guess the main part I use tell after my mother

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died was then my attempted suicide and my eight weeks

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in a psychiatric ward. I do. I do sometimes tell

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that part of the story, so my you know, before

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my mother died, my mother died, my suicide attempt, and

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this my in a psychiatric hospital for those eight weeks,

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all right, So I do, I do tell that part,

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But there's a lot there that I don't really go

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into detail, and I don't really explain. Then my story

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really picks up. I joined the military, I leave Texas,

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I leave Abelene, and in a sense, I leave everything

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in the rear view mirror. I drive away, you know,

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I drive out, leave Abilene on a Greyhound bus, all right,

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And I don't ever look back. I don't, I mean,

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like to me, I don't ever want to look back.

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I don't want to come back. I'm done in a sense,

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I've kind of washed my hands of it all. I'm

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I'm done with everything about it, and I'm pursuing my

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life now. Of course, we know how life worked out

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about ten years later in the United States Military put

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me right back here in Apilene, Texas. It brought me

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back to where it all started.

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In a sense. So that's kind of my story. Before

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my mother died.

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The immediate I guess the immediate outcome of my mother's death,

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which is my suicide attempt in the psychiatric hospital, and

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then my life in the military.

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That's there.

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But in the midst of my story, there was another story.

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There was another story unfolding, and that was the story

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well of my sister. My sister was much younger than me,

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much younger than me when my mother died.

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I believe my.

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Sister was around six years of age, seven years of age.

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And don't get me, don't get upset at me for

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not knowing the age or dates and some of that,

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because again I don't have a I'm not super close

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with anyone in my family.

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So but she when my mother died, she was six

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or seven. She was young.

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I was a teenager, I was in high school, and

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she was around six or seven. My sister's name is Hope, right,

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lots of reasons. There was The Days of Our Lives

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soap opera. There was a character by the name of Hope.

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My understanding is my mom named Hope after that. I

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cannot confirm that because obviously my mother is dead, but

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her name was Hope, and of course she was little

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when my mother died. Now, for me, after my mother died. Obviously,

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I wasn't living at home number one, so I wasn't

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really present there to how everything was going down for Hope, right,

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and then I had my own life was unraveling and

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tried to kill myself psychiatric hospital. Obviously I wasn't thinking

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about my sister Hope. I wasn't giving I wasn't paying

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any attention to that nothing. I kind of kind of

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moved on with my life. Now, after I get out

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of the psychiatric hospital, I do come back home. So

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then it's me, my brother who's about two years younger

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than me, my sister, like I said, she's like six

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seven at this time, and then my father. Now for me,

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in my mind, I was thinking this is tragic as

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this has been my mother dying at the age of

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like thirty nine.

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My mother's dead.

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I tried to kill myself, okay, but I'm back at home, right,

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and other things in my life was unraveling.

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But I had this little maybe I.

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Was naive, but there was like okay here, because I'll

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never forget. We were standing in the kitchen and there

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was like this, there's like these countertops kind of like

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a where you could sit and eat at this kind

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of right there next to the kitchen, and we were

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kind of just standing there, sitting there, and it was

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my dad, it was my brother, it was my sister,

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and it was me. We were eating pizza. And in

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my mind as we were, as I was standing there,

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sitting there, I was like, as tragic as this has been,

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the this is gonna be. This is our chance. This

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is a chance for restoration. This is a chance for healing.

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This is a chance for reconciliation. This could be good.

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This could be we could actually be something like a family,

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even though we may never address the demons of the past,

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even though there may never be an apology. This this

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could be it right. That was my way of thinking.

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But everything went opposite to that, because less than one year,

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less than one year from my mother's.

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Death, my brother, my sister, and me were.

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Sitting in the exact same church, and the exact same

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church that my mother's casket was, I mean, where my

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mother's casket was was sitting right right where she was

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her body was in the exact same church, in the

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exact same spot now stood my father and another woman

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getting married. Less than one year, less than a year

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from burying my mother, And again the casket was standing

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in that very sitting in that very location. And now

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there's my dad and this other woman getting married. Now,

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at that point, things are obviously not I wasn't even

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sitting with the family. I wasn't sitting with my brother.

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I wasn't sitting with my sister. I was it was

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me myself by myself alone, and I'm sitting there looking

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at this like, what has happened? What has happened? Not

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only is my dad getting married, he's married a woman

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who had what four kids to see? Yeah, four kids.

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So next thing you know, the door opens, four kids

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come walking into the house, right, and well, I I

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lose my room, my brother loses his room, my sister

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loses her room. Like we're just we're like, we're all, well,

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my sister has to share a room. Me and my

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brother are now put in the back of the house.

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They did kind of an addition back there, and it's

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like everything changed, everything changed. And now again my sister,

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she's like seven years old at this time, and I'm

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just gonna be honest with you, I wasn't even thinking

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about her.

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I was thinking, what has happened? What is going on?

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Any hope of restoration, any hope of reconciliation. It's over.

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This whole thing has just fallen apart.

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And the woman who came in, she did not like me.

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She wanted me gone. All right, it was it was

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not a good situation. It was.

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It was not good.

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And but so for me because I was older, I

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was a teenager, I had graduated from high school. I

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was I was.

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I stayed away.

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I just d away from the house.

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I stayed away.

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So I did everything I could. I was trying to

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get into the military, and the next thing you know,

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I joined the military and I'm gone. I'm gone, and

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they're left in this now new bizarre situation was my

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brother and my sister.

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I was moving on with my life.

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Now I can look back with regret that I did

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not look out for my sister or think about her

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my life. I was still trying to figure out my life.

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But there was my sister and now in this new

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family dynamic, whatever you want to call it, right, and

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she's in the midst of it. I already knew there

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were problems, right because even before I leave, I tried

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to tell my dad and his new wife, hey, there's

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some drugs going on, there's something not right here, and

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I was basically I was ignored. I was ignored. Well,

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then I leave, and what unfolds there is utterly just

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it's it's complete and utter chaos. I could tell you

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all the stories, you would not believe, all the things

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that went down after I, but I was gone.

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I left.

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Now, after some time, my sister comes to where I

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am in Nebraska and stays with us for a little while.

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We definitely present Christianity to her. There's like some hope

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that maybe you know, nope, pun intended. Her name is Hope,

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but there was hope for hope that now she had

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we thought possibly put our faith in Christ. She was

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going to try to live out her Christian life. We

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thought things were possibly moving in the right direction. We

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really thought everything was going well. And then she came

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back home and then everything just completely un ravels.

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Everything.

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So I was a part of the story, but not really.

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I only only was there for a little bit of it.

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And then every thing that happens is just in it's tragic,

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it is insane, it is crazy. Everything that happened after

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just everything fall apart for my sister's life just utterly unraveled.

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It came completely apart. Now why am I mentioning a

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little bit of my story with my sister's story, Well,

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primarily because I want you to go listen to my

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sister's story. Because my sister's story has now been turned

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into a two part radio drama from the very famous

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program Unshackled. They have turned My Sister's story into a

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two part radio drama. Unshackled's been on the air on

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Christian radio stations forever. One of the long I think

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it is the longest running radio drama out there, and

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it tells the story of people's conversion. It tells and

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most of the stories are pretty dramatic, and well, my

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sister's story definitely fits right into all of that because

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her story was tragic, her story was crazy, and her

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conversion is somewhat dramatic. Now I kind of show up

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in the story just briefly. So let's so, this is

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what I'm going to do.

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I'm gonna let you hear a little bit of this.

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But what I'm going to do is in the notes

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to this program, I'm gonna put the link to part

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one and Part two of my sister story, and then

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for those who use the church one app. I'll send

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out a notification with a link. I'll send out probably

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two notifications, one to Part one of My Sister's story

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and another one to Part two of My sister story.

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And then on the sermon audio dot Com website Sermon

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audio dot com the new website Sermon audio dot Com

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if you look for Theology Central and then find the

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article section. I will also try to include links to

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my sister story there. If you're interested in hearing her story.

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Maybe you are, maybe you're not, but I do play

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a part of it. So let me let me at

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least explain a couple of things obviously unshackled breaking my

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Sister's story into two parts.

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Typically the stories are just one.

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Right, there's usually not just they're not usually two parts.

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Usually it's just one, and it's less than thirty minutes long.

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With their introduction, they're kind of in the middle. They

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have like a little information about their mission there in Chicago,

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and then the conclusion at the end.

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It's less than thirty minutes.

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So when you try to take someone's life story and

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compact it into less than thirty minutes or in this case,

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and two parts, you got to leave a lot of

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things out, and what's required in a lot of the

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storytelling is a lot of times they'll take multiple maybe

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events and kind of compact them into one thing. So

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it's not always a completely one hundred percent accurate telling

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of the story, right, and so, and my sister's case,

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a couple of things. One, well, there are there. The

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other woman obviously is still alive. My father is dead,

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but he doesn't show up in the story. I don't

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think ever, I don't think he does. Maybe he does,

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maybe in part two, I don't know, but he no,

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I don't know. I don't think no part two. He's

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already passed away by the time Part two takes place.

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So yeah, So, so it's just the the other woman

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does show up in it, and so my sister kind

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of I don't know what she said to them and

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how they wrote it.

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But they kind of they view the other woman in.

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A much more positive light than obviously I would, Okay,

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And that's an understatement. That's an understatement. And my sister

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doesn't put a she doesn't assign any blame to kind

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of what the environment she found herself. But if I

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was to tell you the stories, I mean basically when

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my dad got remarried the kids, it was almost like

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the Lord of the Flies is. It's like it just

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turned into sodom and Gomorrah. It was just insanity. And

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my sister was, you know, eight, nine, ten, eleven in

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the midst of all of that. It was insanity. It

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was just total insanity. So yeah, I could tell you

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the stories and how everything went, put it this way,

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and nothing went. Nothing was going on very I mean, well,

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we could talk about some really messed up things that happened.

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So but I think my sister didn't want want to

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put blame on that. I would definitely tell the story different,

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so her childhood part there. They move quickly through it,

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but it's done in a much more positive way than

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I would.

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I do show up in the story, and my part

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is not.

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I don't know. I don't know where this event supposedly occurred,

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and maybe a mixture of events, but it did not

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go down this way. I may we may review at

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least up to that point where I show up in

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the story, but I definitely I want you to hear

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the entirety of the story. It's a story of drugs,

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it's a story of sexual abuse, it's a story of addiction.

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It's a story of just a life spiraling literally out

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of control, of possible desire for suicide. It's it's it's

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just it's it's so tragic. But at least the good

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news now, as my sister is clean, that's the good news.

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Now she has put her faith in Jesus Christ, that's

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good news. And her life is now very different than

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what the story tells. But I want you to hear

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a little bit of this again. If you go to unshackled.

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I think it's unshackled dot org. Unshackled dot org. If

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you go to that and then look for their audio

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dramas and you scroll down, you'll see Hope Part one,

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Part two. That's her story, Hope Part one, Part two,

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And this is how it begins. This is an a

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This is an episode of Unshackled. The program kind of

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forces you to face yourself and think, is kind of

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their tagline. And uh, well, I want you to well

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listen and you can kind of hear. But what I

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want you to take from this, not only is if

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you go listen, I want you to.

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Just remember every person.

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You meet, you make all those quick rash judgments and

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you come and form all these opinions about them. And

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some people think they know someone within a couple of

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minutes and they're well, I don't like when people do

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that to me. Well you think this, stop stop, stop, stop,

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you don't know my story.

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Stop.

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I get really irritated by that, right, all of us,

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When you see someone, there's a story behind that person.

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You may not like their action, you may not like

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the way they do this, but there's a story and

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that story then makes up who we are. So when

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you hear my sister story, just remember everyone in your

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life there's a story. That stranger you meet, there's a story,

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and that story really is important. So this is all

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about the story of one person's life, my sisters. I

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play a part in it. It's just interesting that I

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kind of show up in part one. I wasn't expecting

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me to show up in it, because again there's a

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lot of I wasn't really there.

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I mean I was.

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Yeah. Our age difference really definitely put us in a

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different Uh. We were in different stages of life and

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a lot was going on for both of us.

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All right, but here we go.

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This is how it begins.

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How do you do due to the subject matter in

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this episode, parental guidance is suggested. Have you ever put

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a puzzle together only to get to the end and

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realize you're missing a few crucial pieces? Incredibly frustrating. The

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woman in our story thought of her life as a

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giant puzzle with missing pieces, and the missing represented the

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bad choices she had made. She thought she'd lost so

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much of herself that she'd never be whole again until

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Providence filled in the missing pieces, and that's when her

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heart and mind and very life were unshackled.

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Now, right before this starts, when my sister sent this

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to me yesterday and I hit play that first part,

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I'm like, Okay, that's really kind of profound puzzle, missing

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pieces Providence, Okay.

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I was like, okay, great.

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I wasn't giving it much thought, and then the opening

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scene happens, and immediately I was overwhelmed with emotion, like

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massively overwhelmed, because the scene opens with now the other

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woman is present, my sister's talking to her, and so like,

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at this moment, I was like, I'm a part of

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the story, Like even though I'm not mentioned here, I'm

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very much a part of the story.

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And it just brought it all back. It just brought

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like it.

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Was like someone just walking up punching me in the

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face of because my feelings of what was going on

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in that time were obviously very different than my sister's.

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But it forced me back into the story. And one

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of the ways I feel like I was able to

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navigate my life was there was like a like I'm done,

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Like that story is the past. I'm moving I'm not

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going back. Like I'm done. I'm letting it go. I

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