Tori's Stories

The sound of laughter of pure joy from a child Our main space The smell of rice, beans, sauce, and meat cooking on the stove The sight of children working on mastering new skills The feeling of love when cuddled up with a child The sight of a child’s face lighting up with a big smile knowing they are loved The excitement of a child beginning to crawl, sitting on their own, or playing well The sound of nannies talking amongst themselves as children nap The sound of music playing in the background Each of these sound like a part of a typical home. Each of these are present in the new Promise House at COTP. We currently have eight children from one to eight years old living in this space, all with varying forms of special needs. Each child plays a special part in this home and each child is worth it all. Our oldest goes to school in the morning. He is very active and loves to play on the playground, run around, and do gymnastic like activitie...

My mom recently asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I paused for a moment to think and the only thing I could say was families for our kids. Sure I could think of things that I cannot buy here and would appreciate, but none of them compare to knowing that our children have a family anticipating the day they can come spend the rest of their lives with their forever family. Most of us can think back to our childhood and remember distinct memories of family. How happy it made us when dad came home from work How going out to dinner with the family was a special occasion Fighting with our siblings Playing games Going shopping with mom Building things with dad Tickle fests Spending nights at grandma’s house Getting spoiled by grandparents Big family get togethers Parents attending sporting events, musical productions, or awards ceremonies And so much more… As an adult I have parents I can call for advice or lean on if I’m in a h...

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I woven together in the depths of earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand…”                                                                                                                                ...

Sometimes you do things all the time and one time you do something just enough different that it changes the course of the next few weeks (or sometimes longer). For me, two weeks ago, this was ascending the stairs of my house. It was a Thursday after preschool and I had lunch on my mind, but two steps inside the door my foot started to hurt. When it still hurt hours later and I could check everything off on the on-line test I began to suspect it was a stress fracture. I wasn’t convinced and had hoped it would go away on its own because I could not pinpoint anything that would have caused it. As a precaution I cancelled running the next morning hoping that one day of rest would help. But, staying off of your feet is hard to do. Friday I walked around with some people who where here doing post checks on the wheelchairs we received last March and was encouraged that it didn’t hurt that bad…until I stopped and the pain was back. In preschool I had planned a freeze dance party and...