When I was Ten

Adopted Sister

Growing up in a daycare center, I'm used to kids coming and going, and for all the odd habits that come with them. Some a little more unusual that others, but that was just who they were. One of my favorite kids that I actually grew up with was a little girl named Ariana. The first four years of her life she couldn't walk.

So naturally, she hopped.

I kid you not, she was on her knees and hopped on the hardwood everywhere. She got bruises and blisters, but she just hopped away. By the time she was five she was walking, but while she hopped we made a game out of it. I would run away from her, and she would chase me, just hoping away on her knees. 

She started going to school, I was in forth, she had started kindergarten. We rode the bus together, and I loved always having some to sit next to. 

Then one day my mom picked us up early. 

And I learned that her mother had been stabbed. By her step father. And that she was being hospitalized and they didn't know if she would make it. 

Can you imagine, this little, innocent girl, without a mother. This girl, who wouldn't have somebody to go crying to when she scrapped her knee, who wouldn't be able to share the stories and memories with a mother. Can you imagine, her only having one faint memory of her mother, when she visited her in the hospital while she was dying. 

That was the day that I realized- life isn't fair. Nothing is handed out to you, everything you love is kicked to the ground. And when you think life is fine, you'll stand up looking proud, and then life will look down at you and sweep out your knees. Because this innocent girl, this girl that was as much as a sister to me as I was to her, was being stripped of a mother. 

Everyone thinks they're invincible. Don't say you don't think it, we all do. When your dad tells you you can't go to that party because he doesn't know the parents, when they won't let you go out with a friend because they're a bad influence. Ya, I know, it sucks. Because we all think we're invincible. We all think it won't happen to us. 

Do you think that little girl thought she wouldn't have a mother? Do you think everyone plans for that? 

And then she stopped coming to the daycare one day. Her dad couldn't pay the bills because he was buying so much alcohol at the bar down the street. And I've never seen her again.

To this day, I don't know where she is. She may be here in Iowa, she maybe be in Mexico. I don't know.

I grew up in a daycare, I'm used to kids coming and going, and for all the odd habits that come with them.  Some a little more unusual that others. And some leave imprints on our hearts, and I'll never forget them.