Chapter 27

Well, it’s finally time to move from the darkness into the light.  The move would not be without some shadows, but it would be worth it.  My mother’s sister, Aunt Peg, and my Uncle Doug, along with my cousin, Carrie, left Davenport for Kansas City right about the time I would enter foster care.  My Aunt Peg and Uncle Doug have been major influences in my life since I was born.  Aunt Peg even drove my mom and grandmother to the hospital the night I was born.  Aunt Peg and Uncle Doug were high school sweethearts and married at age 19 and 20, respectively.  I would spend the occasional night or weekend at their house when I was little.  They lived in a two-bedroom split level in Davenport and I thought it was a castle.  I loved being at their house; it was safe.  But then, in 1984, they moved away and I moved out; our lives separated by 8 hours of highway.  Over the next several years, my grandmother and I would board a Greyhound bus with grey-haired people and visit them in their new home in Kansas City.  This would always be the greatest week of my year.  We would eat good food, play games, laugh, and almost always go to the amusement park, Worlds of Fun.  I was always sad to leave that idyllic world and go back to Iowa, which held nothing but bleakness.  During the summer of 1987, my grandmother and I hopped on another Greyhound to travel to KC for another visit.  This time I braved a Worlds of Fun roller coaster with Uncle Doug on the last day of our visit.  I had never been on a roller coaster before and was terrified.  But it was so exhilarating; we went on it a few more times!  Driving home, I could still feel my stomach dropping as if I were still on the ride.  I remember driving away from the amusement park with hope that the feeling of excitement when you face your fear and conquer it would never go away.  And in just a few hours from that moment, all my fears would come to an end.  My last day in Kansas ended with a question from Aunt Peg and Uncle Doug.  “Would you like to come and live with us?”  The answer “Yes” was more like a reflex ~ it required no thought.  “Yes!”  I screamed.  But it was not just an answer to their question; it was the answer to all my prayers as well.