This Is My Story {Part 1}
I would like to use his time as an opportunity to share my story. A story that is in no way frilly or full of butterflies and flowers. It is a story of darkness, desperation, rejection and despair. A story of a girl looking, aching and longing for love, to be told she was beautiful, to be rescued, to be accepted. Sit back and buckle up and try to relax, as I take you on board, inside my time machine, come on let’s go as we journey into my past.
I grew up in San Jose, California and I am the youngest of 4 siblings. My father had been previously married and had 2 children, a son and a daughter. My mother also had a child, she was a teenager when she had my brother. They soon got married and had me. It is your typical, “Yours, Mine and Ours,” situation.
My childhood was not easy. My parents did not get along. Yes, they had their moments where they would show love for one another, but they mostly did not see eye to eye and it always resulted with arguing that escalated to abuse. My parents would always separate whenever they fought. My mom would pack up my brother and I and we would go live with my grandma or one of her sisters for a little while. Because of their constant back and forth, coming and going, during my childhood we moved over 20 times. Until one day, they both decided, they were done and they divorced and never reunited again. They have both moved on, and they remain civil and respectful of one another now, for my sake and the sake of the grand children.
Let’s move forward now, to my teenage years. In the winter of 1995 (the tender age of 15), I was invited by my cousin to attend his churches Christmas play, in which he was starring as Jesus. See, he had recently been saved, radically delivered from a life of drugs and gangs. So to support him, I attended, with 2 of my friends. I sat and watched this play, and nothing surprised me, as I knew the Gospel, and was quite aware of what Jesus had done for the sins of the world. Once the play ended, the pastor stood up on stage and gave an invitation to those who wanted a new life and wanted to be saved. Suddenly my heart started to pound, I could literally hear it in my head. My palms started to sweat and shake and tears started to pour from my eyes. I could barely breathe. Once he said to come to the alter I left my seat and walked to the place, where I personally met my Savior.
Soon after I became committed to Jesus and to my church, where I made such amazing friends. One of which who stood out at the time was this young man named Quoc. He was the one, who would load his Toyota Celica up, both in the seats and in the trunk (yes we were breaking the law, but we figured because we were going to church, it was okay. We have since repented, LOL) with youth. I soon developed a crush on this Quoc character. I was attracted to his heart, his humor and of course his face. However, he was 4 years my senior, so he and I remained friends and were happy with that. A couple years of attending youth services, witnessing to strangers as well as ANYONE I would encounter at my high school, going to youth rallies and camps, my high school graduation came upon me. I graduated in June of 1997, and it was now time to decide what I wanted to do with my life. So I enrolled in Bethany University, a private Christian college.
I spent 2 semesters at Bethany, and I loved every second of it. I was serving the Lord, making new friends, going to beach bonfires and attending late night study sessions. It was great! However, I wanted something different, I was not sure what it was yet. So when it was time for my sophomore year at Bethany, I decided I was not going to go back. The reason? I had saw a commercial for the Army and decided, I wanted THAT to my next adventure. A couple days after viewing that commercial, I went to my local recruiters office, did everything I needed to do in order to “be all I could be, in the Army.” That was June 6th 1998, I was shipped off to basic training June 11th 1998. I know, that was fast, right? I needed it to be fast, as I was beginning to tire of my life at that point and I needed a new fix, so the Army it was, for this California girl.
{to be continued in Part 2…}
Rosanna Nguyen is wife to her best friend, mother of three radical kids and daughter of the Most High God. She is passionate about homeschooling, serving Jesus and leading as many people as she can to the Lord while on earth. In her spare time you can find her shopping online, being a ministry school student, reading, blogging and let’s not forget sipping on some good coffee and espresso blends. She is indeed, a bit of a coffee snob, but is always polite about it.
