“In the midst of licensing families and talking about the HUGE need for foster families, I realized something. My husband and I are exactly what I had been screaming from the rooftops that the system needs—people who have the time, love, and space to offer children when they need it most.”
“I was ‘cured,’ right? Uh, WRONG. Without batting an eye, they start laying on the pressure. ‘Don’t you want him to be a big brother?’ I wanted answers.”
“She insisted she alone would handle it. ‘I’ve got an email to write,’ she announced. An hour later, she returned with a draft to the teacher: ‘Good afternoon. I am unsure of whether or not it came to mind when creating this assignment that not all students come from a line of descendants whose history involves voluntary immigration.'”
“I know you’re tired. I know you’re at your wit’s end. But mama, tonight, take a moment to look down at those babies you made. How beautiful and perfect they are. And tell them that you love them with your whole heart, and you’ll never stop. Not for an instant. No matter what.”
“They were two men made of the same cloth.”
“Two people of a different race than mine decided to willingly and openly accept me as their own. I let go, and never looked back.”
“I accidentally found out about his secret relationship when inquiring about our wills. Dating someone behind my back is singlehandedly the best gift he’s ever given me. I’m not the person I was 6 months ago.”
“On the morning of September 11th, I went into labor. You were born just before midnight, 12 years after that ominous day changed our worlds forever. How do you explain hate to a beautiful, loving, kind, newly-minted 6-year-old?”
“Thank you for taking a break during our nighttime story because mommy is answering urgent emails from parents. For accepting the art project mommy just bought isn’t for you. For understanding every child who walks into your mommy’s zoom call is now also one of ‘her kids.’ You love them like your own.”
“At 6 weeks along, I started to bleed. I was convinced it was happening a third time. She gasped, ‘Oh wow, a heartbeat!’ Words I’d never heard before. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
