This is what I wrote in my last post a year ago, in September of 2021:
“I’m going to post this now and go to bed. I will try to post shorter posts but more often going forward.”
Well…THAT didn’t happen. Surviving the business ended up taking precedence.
Where to even start? Around mid-2021 we had a […]
I grew up a few miles from the ocean and my parents often took us to the beach on the weekends. My Dad would pull into a camping spot with the camper, make sure that the camper was level to the ground (keeps kids from rolling out of bed at night), then he would […]
Karel Dujardin painted “Boy Blowing Soap Bubbles” in 1663. The painting is an allegory on the brevity of life. The soap bubbles represent the transitory nature of life and all that we cherish; beautiful for the moment but gone all too soon.
I have spent this past week thinking about my younger daughter. A year […]
I sent The Little Vine story to my daughter a couple of days ago. I had it printed onto a pale blue paper then had a dark blue plastic backing with clear cover bound onto the story. I wanted the effect to be something that says, “Keep me”. My hope is that she reads […]
This story is dedicated to my younger daughter. She is strong, beautiful, and is wildly living life as a polar opposite to how we raised her. With every look, every word, every text, she tries to convey disdain, disrespect, and dislike for her parents, especially me…her mom. And yet…I love her. I will always love […]
Our family has been dealing with my daughter’s dysfunctional behavior for a decade now, since her 6th grade year.
I started weaving my grief quilt that summer after 6th grade. That first quilt square was really more of worry than of grief. There were a few dark threads of concern but most of […]
In my last blog, I talked about finding out that my daughter was facing charges for theft, probably felony theft. If prison is the cliff edge, there was a long road that led her to that edge. At many points in time there were crossroads. She could have turned off that dangerous path and […]
Twenty years ago this month in Seoul, Korea at the adoption center offices, I helped dress my new daughter in a soft green and white striped outfit. At 4 months old, she was embarking on a huge adjustment…leaving behind forever the foster mother who had cared for her since birth, her country, her culture, […]
Why write a blog about moving from Bitter to Better? Why admit online that I have been bitter?
The idea for this blog slowly developed over this past year. Beginning last summer, a realization slowly dawned on my consciousness like the first almost imperceptible rays of a sunrise lightening a nighttime sky. I realized that ever so gradually over many years of fighting for my daughter’s mental and behavioral health (see “My Story”), I had allowed emotional pain to turn me into someone who was inwardly bitter.
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