Debbie Ihler Rasmussen: Rediscovering my Self-Worth

Debbie never wanted her family to be a statistic, but finally knew it was time for a divorce. She shares how she regained her self-worth with God's help. Rediscovering my Self-WorthBioDebbie Ihler Rasmussen opened a dance studio and began teaching when she was 17 and that developed into a 44 year career teaching dance. Debbie was married for 25 years and then divorced. She has six children and 17 grandchildren, 19 depending upon how you count them. Debbie’s passion for writing has been there for as long as she can remember. She has been writing since she was 12 and finally published her first book in 2014. She's been able to express herself in happy times, sad times and hard times through writing. Debbie has written a book series called The Mystic Trilogy. Her three books take people into another world, if only for a little while, because it's just good to have fun and imagine. SkydivingDebbie is incredibly fun-loving and adventurous. When she was 18, she remembers seeing some skydivers with her mom. She told her mom that she had always wanted to try skydiving but her mom informed her, "One splat and you're dead." Years later, after her divorce, Debbie would go out to the Elsinore drop zone in California and watch people jump. She decided she really wanted to sky dive. So she worked at the diving school to earn the money to do it. She rode the plane up 13 times over the course of 3 years before she finally jumped because she was so afraid. Finally, she was tired of the painful pressure on her ears when the pilot dove back to earth, so she decided she would just jump. Back then, you didn't have to do a tandem jump so Debbie was just freefalling on her own and pulled her own ripcord. She loved it and went back often after that, but it wasn't the kind of habit she could keep up with because of the expense. But she would highly recommend it to anyone, even if you think you're too old. Marriage to BobDebbie met her husband Bob shortly after high school. After being married a few weeks, Debbie saw a different side of Bob. One day Bob was mad at Debbie and picked her up and dropped her. It didn't hurt her so much as it hurt her feelings. She was so surprised that she wanted to talk to her dad about getting an annulment, but she couldn't get ahold of him. Things calmed down a little bit and she decided to just ride it out and move past it. Thanksgiving rolled around and she remembers telling her dad that the turkey made her feel sick. Her dad said, "You're going to have a baby." He was right, Debbie was pregnant. So she doubled down and decided she was going to make it work. The First AffairFor the first 10 years, there were some little control issues with Bob but he was a good dad. But when Debbie was pregnant with their sixth baby, she discovered Bob was having an affair. Debbie had been pregnant off and on for three years and had lost two babies at that point. They had six children under the age of 10. She didn't feel very pretty and finding out about Bob's affair certainly didn't help. Debbie's dad came to visit them for Christmas that year and she told him about the affair. She did not expect what he said next. He said, "Well Debbie, just look as pretty as you can every day when he comes home from work." Debbie was shocked. Her whole life she had been her dad's girl and always felt like a princess. She distinctly remembers standing in her room after her dad left trying to figure out what to do. Again, Debbie decided to stick with it and push through and she believed everything would be fine. She stayed in her marriage for another 13 years. Two More AffairsAt one point, Bob left the family and moved to California. He would come to visit occasionally. Debbie decided to move the family to California to try and fix their marriage. After three years of trying, she was done. Bob had two more affairs and started to get abusive towards the kids. Debbie says she sort of just woke up and realized she didn't have to deal with...