I’ve been reading and digesting Focal Point for two months now, feeling as if they must have taken notes from my house alone. The entire issue is devoted to traumatic stress and 38 of my 39 children fall squarely into that category. One does not lose one’s initial caretaker and not feel stress; most of my children were also abused and neglected.

My birth daughter and I have absorbed much of their stress, we’ve become nearly as traumatized after all these years of going between our family’s gratitude, resentment, happiness, grief and ten million other emotions, it has beat us both down over the years.

Moments of pure,... more