Chapter 7

Today is the day that Cayenne gets here. It's already noon, and I'm ready for her to be here already. They said she would be here at 2, so I told Jacob to come at 1. I kill time by watching TV until he gets here, then I hear a knock at the door. I go to open it and it's Cayenne.

"You're here early!" I say as I lift her into my arms and hug her so tightly.

"There was less traffic than we thought, I hope we didn't interrupt anything." The social worker says.
"No, of course not. I was just killing time until 2." "Anna!" I called

"What happened!" She runs out of her room and says. Then she saw Cayenne and ran up to her and hugged her as I did.

The social worker made sure that she got settled in and then left. A few minutes after she left, Jacob came and he was surprised that Cayenne was already here. He gave her a big hug and was playing with us for a while until we went out to eat.

Finally everyone I loved was together and happy. I never thought that I would ever have this much love surrounding me, and not to mention it's real love that I've never had before. I will never take advantage of the time I have with these people, because if there is anything I've learned it's that time shouldn't be wasted on people who don't care about you the way you care about them.

Ten Years Later

As I stood in front of a classroom full of students I said "When I grew up, I didn't have the best experience with my father. He was abusive, both physically and verbally, but with some help of some special people, I got out and became better. All of that time thinking I was worthless and nothing made me defensive and strong-willed because I thought I knew best and if I thought I didn't need anything, you would know because I made my opinions clear. I wasn't always the nicest to the people trying to help me, but they knew what I was going through and didn't blame me or get angry. They were patient and caring. The most special of those people was an old teacher and a new friend. They got me out of a bad situation and showed me what love really means and that I was worth loving. But those bad experiences, no matter how traumatizing, made me the best social worker I could possibly be. I turned my experiences into a passion, and I may have struggled through school and just life in general, but I didn't let that stop me, and I graduated with honors and went on to college and got a masters degree. If there is anything you can take from today, it's that the struggles you are going through now will make you stronger and if you use them the right way, you can have the life you dream of."

"Please students, let's thank Mrs. Julia Miller for coming out and sharing her story with us." The teacher says.

Following that all the students say thank you and I thank them for letting me come and speak to them, and I started walking to my car. On the way I got a call from Jacob saying that he was ready to go to dinner with everyone, so I told him I would be on my way soon.

I went home and my son Jay came crawling up to me and I gave him a big hug. I called for Jacob and he came out all dressed and ready to go. He gave me a quick kiss and got Jay so that I could change really quick. We are celebrating Cayenne's 20th birthday today and I cannot believe she is that old already, seems like just yesterday she was 10 and barely getting to Anna's house, but a lot has happened since then, I am married to the love of my life and a mom. It's still crazy to think about all the changes that have come to my life.

I finished getting ready and we went to Anna's house. Her and Cayenne were already there and as soon as we walked in all they wanted to do was play with Jay. Just seeing all of my family together warms my heart. I went through a lot to have this family and I know that I will have them forever. The End.