Bella
June
Life as a single mother was something I would never have expected for myself, at twenty six years old I am a single mother of the most beautiful little girl in the world, maybe not something I would have thought of for myself originally but my little girl was worth the effort of every day.
Four years ago my life changed completely when my then boyfriend left me without any warning from one moment to the next, I plunged into an absolute depression for a few months being work my only escape until months later I realized I was pregnant, since then I decided to put my life in order and give the best of me for the sake of my baby.
And now here I am, editor of one of the best agencies in the country. It had not been an easy job but I had made it.
It had been difficult at first, I had only been at my job for a few months when I became pregnant but I had refused to stop working simply because I was pregnant, my brain was still working perfectly and my little ray of sunshine would need a strong mother to give her everything she needed.
With the help of my then boss I had managed to get transferred to the other end of the country and with the support of a friend I had managed to find an apartment where I would spend the next few months until I could find something better on my own.
Maybe taking my life and moving to the other side of the country while pregnant and alone wasn't such a great idea but I needed to put as much distance as possible between me and all my memories of my baby's father.
My father had not been happy with my decision, after going to college and getting a job he had never expected me to decide to move so far away, after all I had decided to go to college in Arizona to be relatively close to Forks and my mother and suddenly moving to New York was anything but what he would have wanted, but he understood my motives.
Only my family, my best friend and a friend knew where I was, I had social media to thank for making it so complicated to take your life and try to disappear. But I can proudly say that I succeeded, no one knows where I am and very few people know how to contact me. I closed each and every one of my old social media accounts as soon as I moved to New York and I only keep an Instagram account where I keep in touch with some friends I have made in the city, from then on I am lost in the world of social media. At first I wanted so badly to keep track of my best friend but soon after I gave up, I would only be hurting myself more since after all her brother was my ex-boyfriend. It seemed as if everything had aligned when he had decided to break up with me, his sister and her boyfriend were in Italy for a year when it all happened, we had lost almost all contact as our communication was not the best with so much distance in between and as soon as he disappeared from my life it was very easy to ignore the rest of his family or rather for them to ignore me. Sometimes I questioned myself if I had done the right thing in never telling him about our daughter but then I remembered all his words and I knew it was better this way, my little girl deserved to have a father who loved her and I didn't know if he would after all the words he used to break up with me.
Now, years later I live happily with my daughter and the occasional visits from my family in the big apple.
Elsie is my greatest pride, at three years old she is an extremely bright little girl and although she has her own difficulties with life, having to wear hearing aids from an early age among other things related to that, she is an extremely happy child. She bears a strong resemblance to her father, something that sometimes becomes too painful but I wouldn't trade for anything, her beautiful green eyes and lovely features make up for the fact that only she inherited her brown hair from me, but she really is perfect in my eyes.
The job of being a single mother of a three year old is hard, between work, the multiple therapies Elsie attends and taking care of our cat, because yes, I make things difficult for myself, my life couldn't get any busier and yet I wouldn't trade it for the world.
We are on our way home, I love having such a flexible schedule that allows me to spend most of the afternoon with Elsie even if it means I have to stay up late every night to get my work done. Each day I drop Elsie off at daycare before going to the office where I spend the next few hours working until I have to pick her up to go home together or go to one of her therapies, it is a bit chaotic to manage all the activities but I do the best I can with what I have.
We arrive home and as always my furry friend is ready to receive us, Elsie loves Dinah and I am always surprised with how gentle she is with animals and the enormous patience the cat has for her, I guess it is the result of having been raised together.
Things are about to change, I was offered a better position at the California headquarters, not a place I would expect to live but the money is good and it is much closer to my family. It took me several days to make my decision, I would have to take my life back and move to the other side of the country but now I would not only be changing my life completely but also my daughter's, which implied too many things, looking for new doctors, therapies, daycare and a lot of other things that we both are already used to but as everything I do is for her sake I know this is an opportunity that I can't miss.
At first I had been a little reluctant to accept the offer, I had made it clear that I was not willing to go back to Arizona so this opportunity seemed too good to be true as California greatly decreases the distance between me and my family and with Elsie getting older and older I would love to be able to see them more regularly so after much thought I finally accepted. It was a pretty good promotion and even though I would be leaving a lot of good things behind I was ready to start over, this time next to my little ray of sunshine.
"Dinah!" Elsie exclaimed as soon as we walked through the door and our little kitty was visible relaxing on the couch, my little girl was quick to walk over to her so she could say hello. "How was your day Dinah?"
"Estoy segura de que su día estuvo muy bien amor, ¿por qué no dejamos las cosas en su lugar y hacemos algo de cenar?"
"I'm sure her day was just fine love, why don't we put things away and make some dinner?"
"Waffles?"
"mmm, breakfast for dinner?"
She nodded and ran out of the room followed by a very excited kitty who was surely ready for all the attention a three year old could give.
Elsie was a waffle lover, it was probably my fault as it was all I wanted during her pregnancy and it had been one of the first signs I had taught her. Sign language had become part of my life since Elsie was about a year old when it was more than evident that her hearing problems were present. Sign language was the first thing I decided to implement, many youtube videos at first were my first teachers until the final diagnosis came and I started attending classes so I could learn along with her.
Elsie had what many would call normal speech since she had received early intervention but even though thanks to her hearing aids she could hear better, she would always be partially deaf and if there was anything I could give her from a young age it would be a means to communicate and express herself so sign language was a recurring theme in our little family. My parents along with their families had begun to learn as well so they could always make Elsie feel included.
At three years old Elsie is quite fluent with her signing and speech, many people have commented to me that her "problem" is not noticeable with how well she speaks and I love to reply that my daughter has no problem, she is perfectly fine the way she is.
With our upcoming move I have been somewhat compliant with the things she wants, after all we are about to take all our stuff and move across the country which means too many changes and if for me an adult it was hard to accept that soon our little apartment would no longer be our home I couldn't imagine what was going through her little mind.
We went about our daily routine as usual, Elsie was more than happy having waffles for dinner and after she went to sleep I continued with the laborious task of packing up our apartment, who knew it was possible to have so much stuff in a two bedroom apartment, even more so when we would be leaving most of our furniture behind to make the move less difficult.
My books were what was taking me the longest to pack, my stuff and Elsie's was mostly already in boxes except for some clothes and a few toys but I had an extensive collection of books that will be accompanying us to our new home.
I was in the middle of deciding which book or rather books to take with me in my carry-on luggage, for as much as I loved my Kindle there was nothing like reading a physical book.
"Hi Dad!" The call from my dad surprised me a bit, but not entirely as sometimes he used to get confused by the time difference "You missed Elsie, she's already asleep as a rock..."
"Bells..." His tone of voice caught me off guard so I immediately stopped what I was doing to sit down on the couch where Dinah soon took over my lap
"Dad? Are you okay? Is everyone okay?"
"Bella your mother..."
