A Decade: Happy Birthday, Emmeline
Most of my childhood pictures have me with a baby doll December 1st was the official anniversary of the day when prayers were answered and a dream came true. My first-born, my Emmeline, is ten years old and I have been a mother for a decade. In January of 2003, I was a fourth grade teacher in my ninth year of teaching. I was a wife of six years. During those six years, we faced my diagnosis with ulcerative colitis and its active condition, my spinal surgery, moving to a new state for graduate school, Joey's time in graduate school, my conversion and re-reversion(?) to the Catholic Church, and infertility. We were still renters, living in our second apartment, and we didn't feel shame in that, even if the Home and Garden TV channel seemed to say otherwise. By spring of that year, I was at a place of such peace when my friend, Regina, visited with her two daughters....