132 _Amber’s Story – 2008

“Love cures people, 
both the ones who give it 
and the ones who receive it.” 
–  Karl Menninger

This tale does not begin on the first day of Amber’s Story or even the first day of me becoming part of her story. I don’t have enough experience to say anything about Amber’s real story. I know little of it. Still, I think this is how stories are. They are so intertwined it can feel impossible to share everything. It would be like trying to tell you why I am who I am or how I came to know Amber and her family. There are so many stories within the story it would take as long to tell as it did to live, likely even longer. The story I know, this story, is simply an account of what occurred after all of her other stories. It’s the narrative of how Amber and I found and then saved one another.

I cannot prove the validity of what happened here, except by how it has changed me. I suppose some would call it fiction, but it was all real to me and the others who lived it. It consumed us and became our joy and our sorrow and, in the end, helped us all to find peace.

I didn’t think the unfiltered brilliance I was born to be was still a possibility for me. I felt the stain of being abused might always mark it. Now, sitting here, my faith blossoming again, and with it, the pure, uninhibited joy of a child.

I am eternally grateful to this family for inviting me into their most vulnerable experiences. They have blessed me in ways I cannot fully express. ‘Thank you’ does not speak strongly enough to convey the gratitude I feel in my heart.

To the family who invited me into your soul, you have returned me to mine, and I am forever honored to have shared this journey with you. 

Namaste