Out of the Darkness: My Journey Through Foster Care

This was a very touching story.  I personally know several girls who could have written this book.                                                    

   Kailamai was from a family of deep depression, misery, heavy drinking, drugs, and abuse. She lived with her mother, sister Amanda, and her mother's many boyfriends.  Kailamai found her safe haven in school and books.  While overweight, she was often bullied. The school counselor, Deborah, was able to get Kailamai to trust her, and there was something about Deborah's sincerity that soothed Kailamai.  The floodgates holding back her pain were bursting at the seams and she could no longer hold it in.   After that, Kailamai's life was never the same.

  She was in 14 different foster home by the age of 16.   Her first home was with Daniel and Laura and their daughter, Crystal. Being with a close-knit family was confusing at first but she soon felt Daniel and Laura's love during her 18 months there. Kailamai always felt guilty for not being with her birth mother, although every time she returned home, she would end up in hospital and placed in another foster home.

Kailamai worked hard to get herself through school with help from foster parents Scott and Loretta. She graduated from college with an Associate's degree and is currently in her senior year majoring in Business Administration, with a double minor in Justice Studies and Communication.  She now helps many children who are living a lifestyle similar to what she experienced throughout her childhood. 

Author's note:

Forgiveness is powerful.

It is beautiful

My Name Is Lucy Barton

There is a simple pretext to Elizabeth Strout's new book. A woman named Lucy Barton is in the hospital, recovering from what should have been a simple operation but has turned into a lengthy hospital stay, and her mother comes from a long distance to see her. Sounds rather uninspiring, right? In this capable author's hands, it is anything but that. Strout uses this simple structure to explore the mother-daughter relationship in deep and illuminating ways. Before this visit, Lucy hasn't spoken to her mother in years. Lucy's childhood was troubled and mired in poverty, and there are complicated feelings of blame from daughter to mother, for not protecting her, for not loving her enough, for not understanding her. Lucy's mother skates over all these issues and over the few days of her visit shares simple gossip of the town and general small talk. But she is reaching out from her own feelings of powerlessness in the only way she can to try to demonstrate her love and regret. And Lucy so obviously needs her. In their simple conversation, we gain glimpses of Lucy's sad past and learn of Lucy's loving, healthy relationship with her own daughters and husband. Strout shows that all relationships are complicated and layered with all kinds of, well, gunk. But every once in a while, even in the worst situations, the gunk can be stripped away to reveal love.