I saw my meme today.
The weekend before last, we actually had her spend the night here. It was amazing to me how she just fit right back in, crawling automatically towards "her" tupperware drawer and snuggling right into my arms like we were playdough creatures molded together.
I went to visit her at her daycare again today and seeing her smile from across the room at me, raising up her hand in a "come get me!" gesture, raising her face for my kiss... it was all so perfect. I hated to leave her, looking back in the room through the multi-paned window, waving as I walked backwards, seeing the confusion on her face.
My meme is being abandoned. It's such a long story, but the short version is that her capable and loving father isn't sure he wants her anymore. Her incapable mother can't have her, and no-one from her huge hispanic extended family wants the responsibility.
I can't fathom this. There are at least 20 relatives: aunts, cousins, uncles, grandparents... on both sides of the family. But no one wants to take this baby and give her a permanent home. I can vaguely understand her father, he is young and DID try his best, and did a reasonable job, but he is practically a child himself and I can see how he would be willing to relinquish his child in the name of love, but for so many other people to deny this infant, to abandon her to the social service system, to ignore her needs, to ignore her right to belong... It's like she's a puppy they got tired of, a cat with too many kittens they've decided to drop off in the country or leave behind when they move. It's like she's a toy they can pass around to adore, but they want to put it away in a closet at their convenience. It's like my life... my husbands life... it's like the lives of so many people we know: abandoned, hopeless, helpless. What is a life worth these days?
What is my meme's life worth?
3 comments:
Oh my gosh...this breaks my heart as well! That huge extended family and not one will take her? Don't you just wish you could house every child that came into your life? It's sad.
Poor sweet baby! What a difficult situation.
I'm glad you were able to see her and spend time with her.
What a sad little lamb. I can only step back and look at my family and know that if something happened to me and my hubby they would be drawing lots to see who got the kidlets when and begging for more time each. I can't imagine anyone not just leaping at the chance to call your meme their own. What a sweet and precious babe and how lucky she is that you love her, now if more people did.
So sad.
Cindi
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