Is it too early to talk about Christmas?
One Christmas morning at Astor, I was opening gifts retrospectively, donations that included a baseball mitt, model car, model plane, paint by numbers, etc. Nice things! I opened yet another gift box and found an unbelievable treasure.
Inside this Christmas present was a book, a fountain pen and a Timex watch that glowed in the dark (the book remains my singular reminder of this moment in my life at Astor). Also there was a card with a very long letter written inside; my mother introduced me to my family!
I never knew I was different…
though I figured it out in short notice, the “normal” routines at Astor made it quite obvious, kids coming and going. Families visiting and leaving. Boys away for the holidays returning for year round school or never to return. However, not me! No one came for me, no one visited, I did not go home for the holidays, in my heart Astor was indeed my home.
That did not prepare me very well for the day I met my mother…
Still she wasn’t just another foster mother, or my new adopter and she definitely was not imaginary! She informed me I had a brother (separated from me at six years old and thought long lost), and a sister.
She also sent along a black and white Polaroid picture of herself and my sister as well! I had a family! No longer did I feel different. This led to my first family meeting and follow up visits to and from my mother’s home. This eventually led to a lost hope for change, returning to a family I never knew I had. Not a very long time later I left Astor and moved to my mothers!
More to come…