I have a detractor, an un-fan, someone who disagrees with everything I say - like a mother-in-law who can't stand you simply by virtue that you married their child. She doesn't like me because she perceives me as a bad influence on the kids. She belittles anything I do with the kids. It's gotten so bad that I simply delete any comment she sends to the blog without even reading it. Like any vituperative 'mother-in-law' who has nothing positive to say there is no point in even opening the email.
Does she have a point? Let's look at how the boys have done living here. When they arrived here they were anxious, unsure of their future and security and living in apalling circumstances. Doc at age 4.5 was still in diapers and could hardly speak coherently. Kit lived inside a rage. Now they are healthy, content, and becoming self assured. Their school grades are honors. They are developing social maturity. There is no risk of them being moved from one place to another on a whim, suddenly finding themselves uprooted at a moment's notice, among irresponsible adults with serious subtance abuse issues. All three of these kids get daily help with homework, extracurricular activities and socialization, learn to better get along with each other, and have unshakable trust at home.
What more can anyone do? I've given over my life to them and now, it appears, that may be literally true. I have a 1 in 5 chance that I will be dead in 3 years from cancer. It may even be as high as 2 in 5. During this unsure time I still intend to make sure the boys are safe, working hard at school, growing up, and loved unconditionally.
You would think that she could cut me just a little slack and not be such a mother-in-law.
