“I come home terrified, not knowing what to expect. I walk into each room looking for him, nowhere to be found. There are cops at the door. My heart sinks in panic. The cops pull him out, still alive. He stated he was ‘cleaning his gun,’ and he wanted to ‘hide in the closet.’ WHAT?! ‘Ma’am, you need to get away from him. This is not safe.’ Then I met Michael. I forgot what laughter felt like until that moment.”
“I was working as a marketing consultant. ‘What are you REALLY passionate about?’ I got on a soapbox about trauma and foster youth. She just looked at me and said, ‘That’s your passion girl. That’s your THING. Until you’re all in that, you’re not gonna get where you want to be!’ I quit my job. She was right.”
“I was sweet and charming with the designated kid picker-upper teacher. And then… it. hit. the. fan. THUMP. I plowed over the ridiculously large orange traffic cone. The safety patrollers began frantically yelling at me, waving me down. I proceeded to army-crawl the entire length of the car, trying to pry out the stupid cone. I was a disaster.”
“I wasn’t really aware how big the need for kitten foster homes was when I started. I missed having a pet, but with working long hours, having a tiny apartment, and my love of travel, I figured that adoption was out of the question. I requested kittens from the shelter and it’s been a revolving door ever since.”
“If she complains she’s exhausted, she doesn’t need a lecture about, ‘How they’re only little once.’ If you see a mother giving her kid some juice, don’t assume she’s beer bonging those kids with red cordial every day. It’s probably a treat. Sit down with your judgement.”
“I can count on two hands the number of times I’ve gotten flowers, but I’ve lost count of how many days my husband’s made my coffee before his own. He blushes when I compliment him, grins if I wear a new dress. Even all these years later, I can still turn his head. The gifts he gives me aren’t laced with diamonds, but I feel rich. There’s probably someone doing their best to pour love into your empty cup. And if you blink, you’ll miss it.”
“At 17, I was put into foster care. ‘We would adopt you!’ Tears flowed down my face. I’d never thought I’d hear this as a 26-year old, aged-out foster youth, and a formerly abandoned child. The judge wiped away tears, pausing to thank us for letting him finish his week with us. As we were ending, he declared, ‘This is a happy day!’”
“I watched as another widow buried her husband. My heart ached for her. When I looked at her, I could see a reflection of myself. Unsteady and unsure. Overwhelmed. And so very afraid. It took my breath away. I couldn’t wait for it all to be over. They don’t tell you just how heavy it is.”
“Each patient gets a blue and a pink hat. She pulled out a blue one to hand to me. ‘It’s strange. There weren’t any pink ones in there. I don’t know if you believe in signs, but there’s no way the baby you’re carrying is a girl. Absolutely no way!’ I’ve only carried 4 girls. To me, there was no way this baby could be a boy. I wanted nothing more than to give my little brother we adopted a brother.”
“I know why opposites attract. It’s so I don’t spend our entire budget on kid’s clothes and coffee runs. You see the good in situations even when I swear it’s not there. You’d work till retirement, I lobby for vacation. That brick of a flip phone you carry keeps me grounded. All the things that drive me crazy about you make us work.”
