The True Story of a Child

I am a mom of a 7 year old boy. He is named after an angel from the New Testament in the Bible. His middle name comes from the New Testament. I am going to call him Christian in this book. I will call myself Angelica in this story. Christian has divorced parents and lives with his dad, who I will call Michael. Angelica pays child support and has visits with Christian regularly. Michael and Angelica get along most of the time and try to keep it that way for Christian's sake as well as their own health.

Christian is different and special because he has a different way of learning where he has to go to special education school and he is in the second grade. He also has a peanut allergy and asthma that can be caused by an allergic reaction. He also has diabetes type 1. All of these things make his life difficult sometimes because there is so much to keep track of when he goes somewhere and it's work for anyone who takes care of him. He can't leave home without a backpack filled with an epipen junior for his allergy, an inhaler for his asthma, and all of the diabetes supplies for testing his blood sugar and giving him insulin shots which are given before every meal and bed.

Angelica is a woman who likes women and she didn't discover this part of herself until she was 29 years old which is when she & Michael got divorced. Christian was almost 4 years old when she moved out and after he turned 4 years old, they were divorced. Michael has had female friends who have been a part of Christian's life for sometime then end up not a part of his life for 1 reason or another. A couple of those friends actually died though Christian doesn't know that. Angelica has had 2 female friends that Christian has met. While 1 was only a part of his life for a couple months, the other he has known about for about a year and half. This friend I will call Ruth. Ruth and Angelica are in a long distance relationship and met online. Angelica lived with Ruth for almost a year and had a long distance relationship with Christian for that time. That was also difficult for Christian, Angelica, and Michael in different ways just as the divorce was. Angelica moved back and is currently trying to find work after losing a job and trying to work from home. Christian has been happy to have Angelica back and Angelica is happy to be near Christian. It is hard for Angelica and Ruth to be away from each other again. But Angelica felt too much guilt only seeing Christian every 3 months and talking to him on the phone a couple times or more or less during the week. Christian is less interested in talking on the phone now and it's not easy for him to think of things to talk about. He does much better in person when he speaks to people. He is too young to have certain things explained to him such as Angelica's liking women. But she hopes to someday be able to explain why she had to get divorced and why she spent time in another state. She loves Christian, always has, and always will. She hopes he'll be able to forgive, accept, and love her for who she is when he can understand. He also has her acceptance and love no matter what throughout his life and she'll tell him that someday.

Christian likes school though he doesn't always feel like doing work and doesn't have to do homework. He learns slower than other kids but he does get to spend some time with regular classes for gym, art, music and things like that. Otherwise, he is with his special education class, teacher, and teacher assistants. He knows kids in his classes and in his neighborhood. He also gets to play with other kids with special needs who live in Waltham who he met at a special needs playgroup started by some parents of these same children and Michael and Angelica have made friends with these parents too.

Although Angelica and Michael don't have too much money because Michael receives disability for his mental illness and Angelica has a physical illness that affects her skin and muscles that made it hard for her to raise Christian alone and that has caused her to lose jobs, Christian has plenty of toys and books. He is taken care of by Michael's family, especially Michael's mom. Angelica's family has given him things too but Michael's family has given much more and have taken care of him plenty. Christian loves anything to do with transportation such as planes, trains, buses, and cars. He has plenty of those toys. He also can be very dramatic, is friendly, affectionate, silly, funny, smart, and loving. He doesn't like to share sometimes but overall he's a good and wonderful child. Even though his life is full of hard things, he is still a happy, playful, and imaginative kid. To know him is a blessing and to have him in my life is a gift from God that I am grateful for and appreciative of. I'll tell him that someday.