just a little blip

it started out as a random little thing.

i saw a post on the facebook wall from STOKES NIELSEN, singer/songwriter ....founding member of the LOST TRAILERS. he's working on a song called UNDERDOG and he was asking for feedback from people about their individual stories as 'underdogs' or of sports teams or other groups that are 'underdogs' in their communities and the things they have accomplished, the things they have overcome.

i felt compelled to respond and tell him about my sister bernadette, the rocky balboa of our family. definitely, an underdog with the cards stacked against her from the moment of her conception.

her biological mother was a drug abuser and had many psychological problems that made her an unstable candidate for parenthood.  yet, it was in God's plan to bring a child into this world through her. before she was four years old bernadette had been in and out of foster care and been subjected to many things that no child should ever be forced to endure.

she was emotionally and developmentally scarred when she came to live with us. but somehow she knew she had come 'home' and she IMMEDIATELY 'adopted' our family as her own even though she was only supposed to stay with us for six weeks. it soon became apparent that there was room in our hearts to keep her forever and it was the hardest thing in the world to give her back at the end of those weeks.

it was not long after she left us that we got the call to say she was being placed back into foster care and would we step up and take on that responsibility. there was no doubt. no hesitation. of course the answer was yes. from that point on we were on a mission to make her a permanent member of our family.

we thought we lost her when, one sunny day, she was riding her bike and a hit-and-run driver collided with her, sent her flying over his truck and 15 feet into the air. she ended up in ICU for three days, they had her prepped for emergency surgery on her brain, we were in limbo waiting to see if she would make it. but, it's always been said that she has an army of guardian angels watching over her and keeping her safe from harm. that God put her here on this earth for a very important purpose, and she had not fulfilled that purpose yet.

from this accident she added some minor learning delays to her emotional and developmental delays. yet through it all she remained an outspoken, determined, spunky child who grew up to become an amazing woman. graduating high school with honors, she joined the united states air force at eighteen where she rose through the ranks to end her career as a tech-sergeant nine years later. she is now thirty years old, living in georgia, married to the love of her life, the mother of two small boys, working as a lab-tech, studying to become a registered nurse and as if this wasn't enough to fill her plate. she finally has discovered God's plan for her.

she learned that for the past four years in a row lakeland, ga in lanier county has the highest rate of  child abuse/neglect in all of georgia. she, along with her close friend holly, is now working to become certified as a guardian ad litem and to establish HOPE HOUSE so that these children have a safe place to go and their parents and guardians have the resources to 'break the cycle' of abuse and neglect

she has come FULL CIRCLE from the small child with the odds stacked against her to this amazing strong and determined woman reaching out to help others in similar situations.