Grace and Grit

Today marks the anniversary of Grace and Grit's first blog post ( you can read it here ). In some ways it is hard for me to accept a year has passed already, but in other ways I feel like I've been a shelter house manager for years. My desire to be here is just as strong, if not stronger, than it was a year ago today! A few of you have asked me how I feel about my job, "now that the shine has worn off." Well, there have been days when I've come home and needed to be alone to process an experience or to come to terms with a mom's choice that I thought was wrong. There are days I've had my plans thrown out the window because someone had a crises of some kind (ER visits, moms in labor, emotional breakdowns, new moms arriving, families leaving unexpectedly, court appearances, bike's and wallets being stolen, kids going missing, earthquakes, power outages, etc, etc, etc). There have been days I've cried, I've felt my heart break, I've bee

Last week I had the experience of going to court for one of our moms. We will call her Nadia.  I was asked by our legal advocate to testify as to the character of Nadia and what she had been doing since she joined our program.  Her abuser laid some pretty heavy accusations against her and was petitioning for sole custody of their 17 month old daughter. Statue outside Cumberland School of Law called Justice and Mercy Having observed, counseled, and lived with Nadia for two months I felt comfortable speaking on her behalf. When she entered our shelter she had the appearance of a caged wild animal. She was wide-eyed, wound up, and terrified that her abuser would find her. As managers we had some very real concerns he would continue to pursue her as well. He showed up at her school and domestic violence class looking for her and contacted all her friends and family asking about her, even after the restraining order was served. Nadia weighed less than 100 pounds and smoked almost n