Recommended Reading for Divorce Recovery 

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In 1999 at the young age of twenty two I married a man whom I loved and we had two children; a boy with high functioning autism and a girl. I was the quintessential 1950's homemaker and mom. I believed in the man being the provider while I created the perfect home, raising children with empathy, nurturing and joy. I believed in the white picket fence, the garden I tended, the cakes I baked. I believed in love and that no matter what problems we may have had we could as a team overcome them. I believed in keeping vows for better or worse and living happily ever after. 

So in 2012 I found myself facing a very life changing circumstance. I was filing for a sudden divorce after 12 years of marriage. As a mom of two children I was also dealing with betrayal by infidelity, needing to recover from emotional abuse, a years long child custody battle, parental alienation, navigating a family court system I knew nothing about and a very bleak financial outlook. Needless to say I was extremely overwhelmed. As you can probably imagine I was facing huge uncertainty, anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, counting pennies and suffering from a big dose of depression that at times was so debilitating I could not get out of bed and function. Here I was giving encouragement to other women and at times I felt I was barely keeping my head above water. That was me. Tired, worn out, bleary eyed, broke and at times feeling like a failure even though my inner voice and God kept saying my worth was not tied in my current circumstance. At times my faith was strong. Other times I felt like I was literally hanging on by a thread. Admittedly there were times I even shook my fist at God. How did I persevere? By the grace of God I was given the power and strength to keep going and stand in triumph today.​

​I learned that merely surviving is no way to live. Through concerted steps in personal development and post divorce recovery I put my visionary skills to work and began actively creating the life I wanted. I no longer wanted to be plagued by overwhelming anxiety and depression predominantly due to my dire circumstances. I no longer wanted to cry in my pillow which I dare say had sadly become an almost daily occurrence.

What I did want was a beautiful life I could be proud of. I wanted to inspire other women struggling post divorce that wanted to know the steps to take to live well. I initially started my blog and website gracepowerstrength.com to share my story regarding struggles with divorce, custody and raise awareness of the family court system. My website slowly grew over 6+ years into a huge following that has now led to sharing how to live life WELL post divorce. As I have evolved so has the website. You deserve to begin living a life that gives you personal fulfillment, joy and that you're proud to claim.  I hope you'll take a look around and stay awhile. The site has lots of information and resources to help you begin thriving. Because surviving is just not enough. A life well lived is one in which you are not just an inspiration to yourself but to other women as well. 


​Best, 
Jen ​

 CONTACT
To reach Jennifer Gafford  you may contact her via email at jennifer@gracepowerstrength.com 
​All emails and messages are kept strictly private and confidential. ​

DISCLAIMER
Grace Power Strength posts are true personal experiences. Aside from the author; Jennifer Gafford,  some names are withheld and or changed to protect identities in the posts. GPS posts are primarily written from a female experience and perspective however many of the posts are worded to include both sexes. Both men and women are targeted by those who are personality disordered. Many of the red flags and coping strategies given are applicable to both men and women. If you are needing mental health, marriage or legal advice etc, please contact a professional in those fields.
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​Not legal advice: The information and materials available at this web site are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice.


​You should contact your competent attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Use of and access to this Web site or any of the links contained within the site and or viewing any videos is not legal advice. The opinions expressed at or through this site are the opinions of the individual author and may not be viewed as legal advice.​ Readers read and use any/all information at their risk. If you wish to post quotes, partial or full posts from this site you may but you must give credit and link back. 

DOCUMENTARY REQUEST
Requests for participation in any documentary related to narcissistic abuse, custody or the family court system are not being accepted at this time.​ 

IMAGES 
Attribution for all images used are given to Typorama,  Canva, FreeDigitalPhotos.net, Grace Power Strength/Jennifer Gafford and Creative Commons via Weebly ​

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