Hello all :)
My name is Lucille, but I go by the name Marie. Nice to meet everyone here. My start with Judaism is quite confusing, so I will just start from the beginning XD
My fathers family is partly Jewish, however half of them are catholics. I can remember as a small child being exposed to the Jewish members of my family. However, after my father died when I was three, my mother converted to Jehovahs witness when I was very young, and I never saw my fathers side of the family again.
As at the age of ten, I was made to study the bible from a Jehovahs witness perspective. I knew right away that it was not something that I was comfortable following. When I was thirteen my mom met her exboyfriend (boyfriend at the time) Robert, and since he was an athiest, she dropped her religion on a dime, and became a nonaffiliated christian.
During this time, my mother did not allow religious discussion. We were to believe that god exists, and not allowed to question anything to do with our religion. We did not go to church, we just "Existed." I was not satisfied with this and began to study alternative religions on my own throughout highschool, with out my mothers knowlege. I have studied extensively Wicca, Paganism, christianity, Isam, Mormonism, zoroastrianism, and hinduism. None of them felt "right" to me. I started studying Judaism when I was sixteen for the first time, and I was facinated by it!
I ended up going to college when I was seventeen, and met my husband. His family also has Jewish ties. His grandfather was born jewish, but converted to Catholic when he married his Catholic wife. His father then converted to methodist when he married his methodist wife :) Confusing I know. Our wedding was Kosher because many of his Jewish relatives came to our wedding. We lived with my husbands parents for a year after we were married, and went to church every sunday. It did not feel right to me, and I continued to study the Torah on my own. After we moved out I did not continue to go to church, I continued my personal studies.
I am 22 now. It has taken me a couple of years, two kids and a recent divorce later to really realize what it is that I want. I have lived in my current city for four months, and didnt even know there was synagogue. It is a very small city. I have recently contacted the Rabbi there in hopes of finding a class to study in so that I can start down the path of conversion. I have considered myself a Jew for a long time, and all my friends consider me to be a Jew, I just want to make it official :)
If youve made it through my looong post, thank you for reading :)
Once again, nice to meet you!
Lucille
