The first time CPS showed up at my doorstep…I was in shock.

Honestly if I hadn’t had the very best lawyer in town, I’m not sure that I would have won custody of my kids.

I believe 100 percent God led me to my lawyer who was experienced and expensive.

I didn’t have a steady job at this point.

I was living in an RV trailer.

And the lies…so many lies and accusations against me.

I remember the first time my lawyer met with my ex husband.

He came back in the room, looked at me, and asked…”would you say he’s a narcissist?”

At the time, I didn’t even know what a narcissist was. I just knew he was the second person to ask me this question.

His advice to me—“look it up…you need to know what you are dealing with.”

I looked it up.

Google.

YouTube.

Pinterest.

And there it was…covert narcissist—a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Over and over.

Of everything I read or watched, that’s what stood out to me.

Before I separated from my ex husband, I told a friend at our church that God was showing me a wolf in sheep’s clothing in our congregation.

She operated in the gift of discernment.

I told her that he would deceive many and cause great division and destruction.

I just didn’t know God was warning me it was the man I was laying next to in bed.

Maybe the church didn’t suffer much division or destruction, but I sure did.

I was still going to church after we separated, until he confronted me in the hall and told me this was no longer my church but his.

This was the same man telling everyone that he wanted God to restore our marriage.

The story soon became that I left him for the man across the street.

That I was cheating on him.

He had everyone deceived, but me.

God opened my eyes to the truth.

I stopped going to what was now “his” church.

He could have it along with the FB account we shared.

The new friendships I had cultivated over the past few years were gone too.

I was sitting alone at the table again.

The revival I was praying for over the years seemed unobtainable.

My neighbor across the street would become my closest friend…eventually my second husband.

And of course my friend from the retreat would continue to stick closer than a brother in the seasons to come.

God gave me the people He knew would stretch me in my faith.

A faith that even CPS couldn’t shake.