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A Letter to My Daughter’s Other Mom
26 March 2018
We found her. Finally. After nearly 20 years and an international investigation, we found our daughter’s birth mom. So I’m sitting here on a Tuesday, at my desk, with paper and a pen and a view of the rainy Oregon foothills trying to decide what to say to a mama across the ocean. A mama in Vietnam who shares my child. A mama who’s waited and wondered and longed for news. A … Continue Reading “A Letter to My Daughter’s Other Mom”
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To Tomicka Who Works the Night Shift at the Crowne Plaza
Dear Tomicka Who Works the Night Shift at the Crowne Plaza at the Seattle Airport,
I don’t know how many frantic phone calls you field every night. I don’t know how many of those come from mommies who are too far away from their kids to help them. I don’t know how many times you have to calm them the heck down and tell them not to worry because you’ve got this. I don’t … Continue Reading “To Tomicka Who Works the Night Shift at the Crowne Plaza”
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A Dog Named Bullsh*t
Once upon a time, my daughter was two.
Now that she’s 16, she looks like this:
But when she was 2, she looked like this:
And when she looked like that, with chubby cheeks and overalls, wispy hair and a funny run, she couldn’t talk.
I mean, she tried to talk, and she had all the usual words like “mama” and “birdie,” “look” and “MINE,” but she had a hard time with bigger words. … Continue Reading “A Dog Named Bullsh*t”
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The Second Dresser Drawer: A Heartwarming Story of Childhood Terror
“Fine,” said the younger daughter with great reluctance, “you can look in my room. As long as you don’t open the second dresser drawer.“
She looked at us with her I’m Not Kidding face, and her Don’t Try Me Right Now lip-pursing, and the I’m a Preteen And I WILL Knife You in Your Sleep stare, and we knew she meant business.
It was nighttime, just before we put kids to bed, and we … Continue Reading “The Second Dresser Drawer: A Heartwarming Story of Childhood Terror”