Mother's Day

Today is my Mom's birthday. Her birthday and Mother's Day are usually within days a part. This is fitting. It should be Mother's day on my Mom's birthday! I will never forget the first day I met her.

My brother and two sisters and I had been living with our aunt. My birth father had died four years earlier and my birth mother had given us to her sister, Aunt Betty. Aunt Betty was an alcoholic and died of liver disease. Here we were, four kids, living in essence by ourselves. The woman who lived across the street decided to call a church to see if anyone wanted these orphans. I don't know how many churches Mrs. Moore called, but she made a connection when she called the Eastridge Church of Christ. That evening, the four of us were picked up by Ed and Otta Mae Barnett. Otta Mae was the church secretary who answered the call.

When they picked us up the evening of November 16, 1962, it seemed very normal. Since I was three years old I had been in and out of orphan homes, foster care, and lived with our aunt, which is now often referred to as "kinship care." This seemed like what kids did in our situation. Somebody died or left you and then someone else picked you up. Often my older sister and I would become scavengers, looking for something to eat. One time in Houston, CPS was called because we were going into neighbor's homes, looking for food. This was during a time before my birth mother was about to lose custody of us and give us to her sister, Betty. Before the Barnett's picked us up, Aunt Betty was not well enough to care for us, so we were again scavenging for food.

When the Barnett's picked us up they took us home and fed us. They always had plenty of food! The Barnett's had three older girls, two of them were still living at home. They remarked how amazed they were when they watched us eat. We could really put the food away for such little kids.

What kind of woman would take four neglected children into her home, without much knowledge of their past, and when you already had two teenage daughters and one daughter recently married? A woman with a heart of compassion!

That one event changed the course of my life. Life from that point on was definitely not a bowl of cherries. That was during a time before trauma and attactment issues were common concerns in such situations. However, four siblings stayed together, were cared for, and given another chance in life.

Over the years, I always thought that my Mom deserved an award. I guess my life in someway has been a reward for her. I am a Christian, have a great wife of 23 years and three wonderful children, all of whom are Christians. It is possible that this would never have happenned if it wasn't for the love and compassion of Otta Mae Barnett! Happy Mother's Birthday!