In the Beginning

A long time ago, in a state several hours away, a city girl fell in love with a farmer and they were happily married soon after. The city girl (me) had always wanted a large family, but the Farmer couldn't have kids and wasn't sure if he wanted them. So, we compromised and did emergency foster care for our county. Once a month or so a small child or two stayed with us, usually just for a night or weekend, but never longer than two weeks. After a couple of years of this, we received a sibling group of five young children. The youngest was only three weeks old and the others were 3, 5, 6, and 7. When it became obvious that their birth parents weren't ready to have them back after two weeks, we agreed to transfer to regular foster care so the kids could stay together. When the baby was four months old, their birth parents decided to relinquish their rights and we were allowed to adopt them.


When the baby was five, and obviously no longer a baby, the Farmer quit farming and we moved to a very rural community in a nearby state. Four years later, the Farmer died unexpectedly of a heart attack, leaving me with five children ages 9-16. In the nine years we had been parenting together, we dealt with a lot of issues stemming from early neglect, horrific abuse, and genetic mental disabilities. In the 10 years since their father's death, the children have become adults. Some are doing better than others, but all live on the margin of society due to issues they have no control over.


This summer was suppose to be my reentry into the world outside of extreme parenting, but God loves a good joke as much as the next deity and everything has changed. 2 weeks before I graduated from college with a double major in Computer Networking and Web Design, I found out I had uterine cancer. The week after I graduated, the job I had lined up disappeared. In the 6 weeks since, my doctors have delayed surgery due to other medical issues and it's hard to get a job when you don't know when you can actually start working. Today my youngest daughter flew across the country to live with her One True Love, a man she met on an on-line dating site. She left behind her 16 month old son, KC. Because I only have temporary guardianship of him, she can have him back whenever she wants, so this blog will be a record of our journey.

KC - all tuckered out from a morning helping Grammy destroy clean the living room.