An Afternoon

Today I did something hard. It was nice,

but it was hard.

I brought the boys' birth mother with us

to soccer.

I wasn't really sure if it was the right

thing to do, but it felt right.

I wasn't really sure how she'd be,

how the boys' would be,

how I would be.

They hadn't seen her since before Easter.

I hadn't seen her since court.

It was good to see her. It was good

to hug her.

Most importantly, it was good for the boys' to

see her. To know that she isn't just another

loss in their lives, that it's okay for them to

love her and us. When I took her home,

she looked at me and said,

"Thank You."

As hard as it was to bring her with us, to hear her

call me "Mommy Jennie" with the boys,

I knew, in those two small words, that spending the

afternoon with her was the right thing to do.