Hi everyone
I was born-in to a family with a JW mum and a nonbelieving dad so grew up fairly confused. For the early years I had birthdays and Christmas, but then it suddenly all stopped which I found heart breaking.
I love my mum very much and probably for her sake I tried to be a good JW, but I really didn't have the heart for it. In my early 20's I started dating a non JW (Spawn) who I married so that pretty much ended my being a JW for a while. However, as I said I loved my mum and so after a few years my hubby and I started going to a few meetings and eventually started studying as a couple.
So here I was back in the JW fold, however, I still couldn't make it work any better than before. In 2006 I had my first son and as many new mums will understand found getting to meetings hard. Both hubby and I did not want to take the baby out at night and then there were problems in the cong. I could not understand why Jehovah would allow such hypocracy.
The final straw came when my eldest sisters husband was made a Elder despite us voicing concerns about his abusive behaviour. We never went to another meeting after that. For a long time I thought it was just our cong, but a conversation last Dec changed that.
My son was now 3 and I was expecting my second child and planning a big Christmas celebration the first in years. The pre-school nativity had just happened and my son had proudly played a shepherd. Then I got a call from one of my sisters (I have 3) she was concerned that if my eldest sister found out my son had been in the nativity that she would have grounds for me to be dissfellowshiped. After I told her I didn’t care it transpired that she and her hubby had doubts and were actually fading from the Org.
Thanks to them I was directed to this site and found all you fab guys and gals. It was truly a light bulb moment and though I have my wobble days on the whole life is good. I feel free to be myself without the JW label and that is a wonderful feeling.