Another lifetime: A favorite photo for winter

This is not a new photo but it isn’t that old either. This is not my childhood but it does represent the childhood of someone else to me. As foster parents you understand and yet you don’t. You can see the years that have been stolen from these kids. The memories they didn’t get to have. You can’t quite grasp what that must be like- to not even know what you have missed. And so we do our best. To try to give them glimmers that you hope will someday fill the void they haven’t finished processing. You want them to have their own new memories, not just be a witness to the life of others moving around them.

Which is why I made them put on their winter gear this particular day and go with me out to the field for the first real snow. They were doing virtual learning at the time and we put it aside- muted the sound, logged off the camera, slipped away for a few minutes… Just to see the snowfall- because I always thought the first snowfall of the season was magical.

They maybe thought it was silly. They maybe will only remember the marshmallows I put in the hot chocolate we made when we came back in to warm up.

The mind is funny like that.

But I look at this picture and for me- I know I will always remember that day.

It was a good day.

And in the years that would follow and all the ways the world would break my heart- it’s always good to remember the good days.