I don’t know if anyone has any interest in learning about my life story. I don’t particularly find myself too terribly entertaining, but then again, this is MY life. The truth of the matter is, my life is non-stop. I’ve often been described as someone who runs at 150% and, while there are plenty of days that I just want to do nothing, I just don’t know how to turn it off! So buckle up everyone for jumbled chaos that is the life of Mia Calderwood.
While my Dad was a career Marine, I sadly wasn’t born in any exotic place like some of my siblings. Surprisingly enough I was born in Boise, Idaho. My Dad was serving in the Gulf War at the time, so my biological mother stayed at her Father’s house in Boise. It’s kinda crazy then that Idaho is where I ended up settling down! Like I mentioned, my Dad was serving in the war at my birth, but, by a stroke of luck, his unit was serving with news anchor Tom Brokaw so my Dad was able to meet me on National Television before coming home! I’ve seen the clip of this news session one time in my life, so if anyone has impeccable googling skills it would be neat to see it again! It was after my Dad’s return from the war that my life truly began to get interesting.
My family was moved to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and shortly after the move, I started becoming very sick. Countless doctor visits yielded no results and before we knew it, we were being packed up and moved to California, but again, doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Finally, one doctor began to suspect that things weren’t really adding up.
My biological Mom was accused of having Munchausen Syndrom By Proxy, a mental illness where a caregiver hurts their charge (often a young child) for attention. As the accusations surfaced, I was put into Foster care while my older 3 siblings were sent to my Grandma’s house to be watched. While a lot of people tend at this moment in my life story to tell me how sorry they are that I endured this, I can’t help but to feel sorrier for my Dad or my older siblings who were more aware of what was happening. You see, my poor Dad was off fighting for his country overseas when the accusations came up. He got to come home to me in foster care and no idea what was happening! He didn’t believe the doctors and lawyers at first, but after overwhelming evidence was presented, he horrifically realized that this was in fact happening. My Dad, understandably, filed for divorce and then proceeded to prove his innocence and win custody of all 4 of us children (the older kids aren’t even biologically his)! This is part of the reason that no matter how old I get, my Dad will always be my hero!
So after a fairly drama-filled beginning, my life became pretty normal. My Dad remarried to a woman who is every bit my Mom, minus DNA, and soon my 2 younger sisters were born to complete our family of 8.
Being in the military meant we did move a lot. We moved all over the country and even spent a few years in Japan! I have to say: I had an amazing childhood! In high school, my Dad retired from the Marine Corps and we moved up to Fredericksburg, VA where I like to claim as my home!
In Virginia, my “formative” years took place and I feel like they really paved way for the personality I have now! I did musicals, sports, church activities, book clubs, and the list goes on and on. And in all the craziness and activities, I discovered me! I’m a person that likes being busy!
After my Freshman year of college, I met a guy and we moved to Idaho because we discovered college is a heck of a lot cheaper! After almost 4 years of marriage though, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t meant to be. Divorce is rocky in any situation, and I’m grateful that I didn’t have any children with him, but I was at a crossroads. Was I supposed to move back to Virginia and be with my family, or stay in Idaho where I hardly knew anyone? Well, boy am I glad I stayed!
Apparently, the universe knew that I needed to be in Idaho even if how I got here was a little rocky. My soul-mate is a local to the Idaho Falls area, and while some people were shocked at how quickly we married after my divorce, sometimes when you know it’s meant to be you just go for it! Meeting my husband also introduced me to another life-changing person, my oldest son. Jon had a son from his first marriage and while I didn’t give birth to him, I will always consider this amazing boy to be as much my child as the 2 that I did carry. I also want to just quickly state that while I will always 100% consider him as one of my children, I recognize that he already has a Mom and she is a big factor in his life. These are my feelings, and if later in life he wants to call me Mia or his Step-Mom instead of Mom, then that’s fine, it doesn’t change my feelings towards him one bit!
So in total, I am a mother of 3 amazing children! We are family that thrives on making memories, so we get extremely restless being in the house for longer than a few hours! Every day is go, go, go for us! I tried being a working from home Mom for a year and hated it! It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy being with my kids, it’s that I didn’t have enough going on to fill my bucket. So some might think I’m selfish, but I am now back to working full-time out of the home and, while schedules can be a little complicated and crazy, I love it!
Someone might psychoanalyze that the chaos at the beginning of my life has a huge factor for my need for chaos, but I don’t care! I like meeting new people, I like keeping my mind busy and trying new things. I live by the motto of being a Jack of all trades and master of none! I have nothing against being a Stay-at-Home Mom or being a Working from Home Mom, it was just not for me. So this is my life, just make sure to stay tuned for all my future articles if you want to be entertained!
