We Are Free

I told you in the beginning that I have a good story to tell. The truth is, it isn't over. I don't exactly know where I would be if no one believed in me and it's hard to picture. When I was 15 waking up in that hospital I couldn't tell you where I would be if you asked me.
     If you did I would shake my head or start crying because all I saw was darkness. I couldn't see any light but now I do. Knowing I can survive that lets me know I can do anything. I was farthest from being a normal teenager but that's okay. 
     In the end I did what I wanted to do. I made it out and I made sure we all made it out as well. All the tears I shed, all the nights I had bled, all the days I had fought, all the hours I thought, they all made me who I am today.
     That small little house in the woods, that one brave moment when I asked Halo out. All of it. Yes, my story is long and it has been a long story, but in order to tell it right I have to tell it from the beginning. It's not over there will be more. Ethan has to grow and so does Rebel.
     Life goes on and everything will keep moving forward. We will have more struggles and we will never be a normal family. It is just how it goes. How I got Halo, Zac, Anna, and everyone in my life is such a different story then how I survived my life.
     This just proves that you can rise to the occasion and fix what has gone wrong. No matter what situation you are put in if you are determined enough you can do it and you can make it. You just have to stay strong and do what you can. The nightmares that once haunted me no longer scare me.
     The pain I used to feel no long haunts me. The hurt in my heart is now filled with joy as I watch my kids and my family grow. When I look back on being that weak, scared, little boy with two kids to raise I kinda laugh.
     I tell that boy to keep working hard because it is worth it for him. In the end it will all work out. In the end he will have a family, a wife, a big beautiful house without the beer bottles on the table and the cigarette butts in an ash tray.
     He will have a beautiful little sister that is such a wonderful person he will wonder how he got so lucky. I will tell him about his amazing brother the one that always wants to see him smile and will always want to help even when he can't.
     I will tell him that there is so much brightness in his future and to hang on. I will look at him, the small little 15 year old Jace and wipe the tears from his eyes. I will look at him and tell him we did it. I will tell him we did it buddy, We Are Free.