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Friday, March 16, 2012

The Story of Me part 32

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People I Loved Who loved Me Back



Leo Lewis



It’s important that I back my story up and tell you about Leo Lewis. We were children, but I loved Leo from the first moment I saw him and I believe that’s when he fell in love with me too. It was Leo who became my first friend. Leo who kept the other kids at school from picking on me. Leo who listened to my secrets and told me his. Leo who planned a future with me and made me believe that anything was possible.



Leo was born to an unwed teenage mother just like I had been. His mother had given up her rights in hope that Leo would be adopted by a family who could give him a better life than she could provide. She had never held her son. She never really saw him. She was unaware that he had been born with a heart defect that would require surgery and prevent any family from wanting to adopt him. His defect wasn’t fatal, but the surgery was expensive and families were afraid to adopt a child that would require so much medical attention as such an early age. Any families that were offered Leo opted to wait for a healthy baby.



Leo spent the first six months of his life in the hospital and the three years following that moving from one foster home to another. He started acting out, became a discipline problem and was moved to a county group home. Leo told me once that going to that group home was the best thing that ever happened to him because he never would have met me otherwise.



The boys in the home had to share everything. Leo slept in a room with five other boys sharing three sets of bunk beds. Leo was the youngest and therefore learned to fight for what he wanted at an early age. The counselors that ran the house were more interested in receiving their weekly paychecks than in actually helping the boys. As long as things were quiet and there was no visible blood or bruises no one stepped in to stop the bullying that went on daily.



I was eight years old when I first met Leo and only eleven years old the last time I saw him. He was a year older than me, but he had not passed the third grade so we were together at school. According to Leo, not passing the third grade was the second best thing that ever happened to him because it allowed us to be in the same class. Leo wasn’t dumb he just didn’t have any one to support or help him. He had been alone in the world until I came along. We were kindred spirits.



Twelve years passed between the last time I saw Leo an the day I died, but I never stopped loving him, waiting for him or hoping we would find each other again.

6 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in CBH Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, under the Page 8 post on Mar. 16, 2012. Thanks again.

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  2. Your story today really got me. I'll be honest, most days I don't have time to read the blogs and for some reason I did today.
    My husband and I have been in the process and are finally getting to adopt 3 little people who we've had as foster children for a few years now.

    Of course, by law, I can't discuss their stories but yours touched me and it hurts deeply to think that so many children go without "belonging" in a family because of what has happened to them through no fault of their own.
    Being a foster home is so very hard to do. Your friends and sometimes family do not want your unbehaved children around theirs. When they have meltdowns in public people stare, point and whisper.
    Afterall, I understand. My perspective certainly changed when I now see a child screaming at the top of their lungs or lying on the floor kicking, I get it.

    Tonight, I'm going to hold my guys a little tighter and tell them I love them a few hundred extra times. As disfunctional as my life has become since they came into it, life has neve been more beautifully perfect.

    Thank you for reminding me and all of us how wonderful and precious these little lives are. And maybe, helping someone see it for the first time.
    Thanks for allowing me to take over your blog to express.

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    Replies
    1. What a heartfelt touching story. These youngsters are so blessed to have you as parents. Good Luck.

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  3. Thanks Ginger for a touching story.

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  4. Thank you for your artwork and all the wonderful "sayings" - they add just the right touch to a card or special meaning to a notelet :)

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