My Life in a Playlist

Day 7: The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies - Gypsy Lullaby

This song comes from one of the darkest points of my existence. I want through a nasty divorce, and not only had my sons been spirited off where they were hard to find, but when I did, what the judge had said really didn't matter. When I finally found them and tried to use my right to phone visitation, it went very poorly. If the phone wasn't busy the entire hour I could call, my eight year-old would cuss me out at his mothers behest. I could hear her in the background telling him what to say. All I could do is just keep telling him I loved him. I was in good physical shape, because the heavy bag would get one heck of a workout, but mentally I was a mess.

I thought for awhile I might never see them again, and this song reminded me that even though I would never stop fighting, I had to lay it down or it would be my undoing. I had put it in the "cemetery in my mind."

It took a few years, but I finally got them back. She told me they were enrolled in school, but none with a 25 mile radius had heard of them. Then, they were being "home schooled" according to her. And in the backward state where they lived, they didn't even test kids. When my son, now ten, couldn't multiply 5 x 5, and told me they'd learned about astrology -- not astronomy -- in school that day, I was done. It ended up costing me five grand, and each of them a grade in school, but they finally came to live with me for good.

So, the end of the song. The hope and the success that is found reminds me how lucky I was, and I'm grateful for it to this day.