At work, as I sat at my desk filling out a form on the computer for a client, a sudden twitching feeling inside my lower abdomen ripped me out of my concentration. I threw my hand to my stomach just as my baby moved inside me again. Over the last few days, I had felt a couple butterfly-like sensations while lying in bed, but they were so faint, I couldn't be sure. But, this was different. I called Michael and we celebrated together. I went back to work, but a couple of minutes later I again felt a few more twitches and movements. It would be a lie to say I was focused on my job for those twenty minutes of pure joy.
After work, I drove across downtown Los Angeles to a small church with green doors situated in the heart of skid row. Four years ago, the same year that Michael and I got engaged and married, I taught behind those green doors at an after school program for homeless kids. Due to the highly transitory nature of being homeless, most of my students from that year were long gone, hopefully to more stable home situations, but one of my students was back attending the program and invited me to visit. I could hardly look at Tecola because my memory kept telling me she was still a fourth grade girl, not the similar looking teenager who exclaimed, "Ms. Christie!" and came up to me and hugged me. We then lost ourselves in chatting for the the better part of an hour, just laughing and hearing about each others lives. It was pure joy.
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| Three of my former students at Disneyland. |
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