Domestic abuse. Being hit and treated badly. Those were things that sounded very foreign to me when I was a teenager. I could never really understand how anyone could allow himself or herself to be in an abusive situation. How could anyone be so stupid?

Well, today I know better. I know it is very easy to get into a bad situation, and very hard to get out. By telling my story I hope that someone who reads it might avoid getting into the same situation I have been in. I have lost five years of my life. Five years of violence, fear, pain and hopelessness. I feel lucky to be alive. I have finally found my peace. I have a family, a husband who loves me and two wonderful children. I almost didn't make it though. I feel lucky to be alive. I know I am one of the lucky ones and I am grateful for that. I am thankful for the life I have now...it is so wonderful compared to what once was...

Here is my story.
I met Peter in Junior High school. He was one of the most popular guys and I was not really in the loop so to speak. He was an exciting kind of guy, mind you he always seemed to get into trouble but it was never really his fault. After I started High School I didn't see him anymore. I moved to the city, got new friends and so on.

4 years later I had just broken up with my boyfriend. I was out partying with the girls. All of a sudden there he was, Peter. Wanna dance? he asked. Well, to make a long story short we were inseparable after that night. In the beginning everything was fine. I got the keys to his apartment just after a few weeks and moved in more or less. I was working full time and so was he. We had lots of money and when we were not working we were usually hitting the clubs with his friends. Peter was kind of jealous but I took that more as a compliment - just imagine that he was so much in love with me that he was afraid to lose me! He drank quite a lot, I have to admit that. He also liked to start fights. It happened more than one time that I had to drag him home after a fight or take him to the ER after a wild fight. He also liked going to the strip clubs. I wasn't too keen on that but I thought he would stop eventually.

So time went by and we were doing pretty well I thought. Ok, I did find unknown phone numbers on little notes in his pockets once in a while and he was often late coming home from work but I didn't want to reflect much over that. A while later Peter got the opportunity to start working in another city. We started talking about buying a house together. I really didn't want to give up my job or move away from my family but somehow he persuaded me. He made me feel that if I loved him I would do this.

Now, Peter hadn't been taking very good care of his finances. He had very bad credit and couldn't get a loan. Therefore I took the mortgage in my name. We bought a new car, new furniture and other things. We bought a small house in a small community about 150 kilometers south from where I grew up.