Wings

Last night as Katelyn was looking through some recent photos, she came across the two pictures shown below. She asked who these women were, having no recollection herself, and why I had had my picture taken with them.

I immediately suppressed the desire to tell her that one woman was her birthmother and the other was a woman that had offered $100 to take Kate off my hands and sell her into slavery and that I was seriously considering it. I decided instead that this would make a better teaching moment than an opportunity to tease.

So I told her about the woman in the first picture, JoEllen Carlson, and how I had at the age of 11 babysat her four children every Friday night. How she and her husband Clark had treated me like a daughter and had trusted me entirely with their four very young children. She would often write me notes of appreciation and buy me gifts, small things that "reminded her of me." I told Kate how it had made me feel to be so appreciated and esteemed by adults whom I considered at the time to be so much cooler than my own parents. I told her how I, being relatively young and full of imagination at the time, would play "house" with her kids, pretending they were my own. I cooked, cleaned, did laundry and played endless hours of chase, hide-and-seek and helicopter and loved every minute of it. JoEllen was perhaps the first woman I had really looked up to besides my mother and thought, "I want to be like her when I grow up."

When I was in Denver two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to chat with her at church for a few minutes and was so incredibly pleased to find that she was the same faithful, fun-loving and contagiously optimistic person I had remembered. All of her babies are grown with babies of their own, which makes me feel ancient-ish, but I am so grateful to JoEllen for the friendship, trust and example she was to me as a young, very impressionable girl.

DISCLAIMER: My little buddy, 9-year-old nephew Trevor, who has nicknamed me "The Hobo" took these pictures. We're working on his stabilizing and focusing techniques. :)




This dear, sweet woman is the mother of my "big sister" Niobe (who is actually the wife of my eldest brother, but she's been my friend for a very long time). Niobe's little sister Nadine was one of my closest high school friends, and when things were rough at home or I was feeling particularly mistreated by the world, I'd often end up at Nadine's house. Nadine and Ni's mother, Gloria, was like a second mom to me. I loved her sense of humor, her immense patience and her willingness to hold me to higher standards than I sometimes set even for myself.

I also had the opportunity to spend some time with her in Denver and continue to admire her deep faith and perpetual smile.


I honestly believe the family unit is irreplaceable and unmatched in its capacity to instill in us the morals, beliefs and a sense of security that are requisite to reaching our full potential. However, I also believe in the distinct necessity for external influences in our lives, especially as we launch into puberty and later into adulthood, in helping us determine who we really are as well as our potential for being loved by others outside of our immediate families.

These are just two of the many, many people in my life who've provided the lift I've needed at pivotal times in my life to rise a little higher than I could have on my own.