Life is like ....

No truer words have ever been spoken, than the famous line from Forest Gump - Life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get.

This is one of my favourite movies. The life lessons are all through the movie, if you take your time to really watch it. But the above line is one of my favourites.

When you are at school, you most likely had 1 of 2 dreams. Either to get married and have kids, or to get a job, get rich quickly and travel. Now I have to say, looking back at the people I went to school with, well not many are rich. Some have done a little travel. One or two have done a lot of travel.

Now with those that dreamt of getting married and having kids, how many did life turn out like they thought? I bet not many.

My story was like that. I was going to backpack around the world, but never seemed to have the money to do so. I did have driving holidays that I loved doing.

When Peter and I got married the plan was for me to work a few years, then have 4 kids. Well we got married in June, got told in July that I might have to have a hysterectomy, but luckily at that stage they just took an ovary. But it meant starting to try for kids then.

We both had problems with fertility, so had to use fertility drugs. Three miscarriages and over 3 years later, we had Ryan. We started fertility drugs straight away and in less than 6 months, had an ectopic pregnancy. Again drugs and we had Jade. We decided that our 4 kids, would just be 2.

We had already decided that when the kids were older, they would be attending Sacred Heart School and that we would move back to the Sunshine Coast before they started high school.

Again life changed. I fell pregnant with Troy - our little miracle - then Ryan was diagnosed and we had to rethink schooling for them all. We also had to work out if moving back to the coast was the right thing to do or whether staying closer to specialist was better.

So instead of moving to the coast, we sold and built a house that would suit a wheelchair and be near the school that the kids would be going to. Instead of me going back to work, when the kids were at school. I had to be at home, to be able to go to specialists and therapist appointments. Oh and I did end up having that hysterectomy at 30.

With your kids, you plan on what activities they are going to do. I always said that I wasn't going to have a daughter who did dancing. Mainly because some I went to school with that did it, were a bit snobby. Well I bet its not surprise to hear that Jade danced for around 17 years.

I pictured Troy playing football. Well he played soccer and found success with tenpin bowling. But I do have a daughter that works at a football club. Guess that counts haha.

You think your kids will be at home until they get married and leave (and hopefully that is before they are 25), but that doesn't happen either. You imagine travelling when your older and having the money to have freedom to do what you want.

You learn along the way, that other couples on $100,000 or $200,000 a year or more, are no happier than you on your $40,000 a year. They also had their life planned out beforehand and had to change along the way.

So in reality, just about every damn chocolate you pick from that box, is in the wrong wrapper. And yes you will feel disappointed that it isn't the one you were expecting, but you adjust your thinking and enjoy the one you have.