Is the institution defunct?

[hoosiermama]

I get it. I really do. Guess what I want us to know, is what we are aspiring to. And our kids should know that as well. We aren't saying the journey will be glorious, but that we'll make it together.

I hope that D13 knows that I did all I could do to keep our family together (although that ended up being absolutely and completely irrelevant), and that it's worth the effort after all. And that, when someone fails to see your value as a person, or your beauty, or your wisdom--the world doesn't end. You continue to believe in yourself, you scrape up the pieces and put them back together and make a new life out of the ashes. Not the one you chose, not the one you wanted, but maybe even a more whole and healthy one than you had before. And maybe you'll run across someone else who does value you, who loves your children as their own, and you make a life together. But that's the icing on the cake, and the cake is pretty tasty even without the icing.