Gail's Blog

We live in a very diverse area of Virginia. Some people believe that Northern Virginia should secede from the rest of the state because our values are so different. We don't hold that it should be okay to let people into bars with guns (just so they don't drink, wink wink!). We don't believe in limiting the rights of immigrants, homosexuals, or people without health care. (or at least most of us don't) And we regularly rub elbows with people from all over the world. I stopped in at a Starbucks in an area we call Bailey's Crossroads. Someone else can tell you who Bailey was, I'm sure, but I know it as the area to which we took our daughters when they were little for shopping and dining. There are several ethnic restaurants and food stores there. I was on my way to the Greek store, Aphrodite Greek Imports, to be exact, to pick up my Easter supplies. I walked into this Starbucks and immediately felt like I was in an African coffee shop, if African coffee shops are...

After six months in rehab, Kristin is coming to our house for dinner tomorrow, spending the night and going with me to the nine o'clock Sunday morning. It is a kind of raw time for us. The rest of the family hasn't even seen her clean and sober for years. I have since I visited her in jail, and then in rehab. I hope they see the change in her that I see, and that was celebrated at her transition ceremony at the center. I like the Kristin I see, now. She's the same person, and yet she is so much more self-aware and focused. She knows the possible pitfalls, and her "triggers". She knows to depend on her sponsor, her counselor, her re-hab friends. She knows not to resume friendships with the people she did drugs with. She knows to keep her mother at arm's length. And she knows it won't be easy. That is very new for Kristin. It won't be easy, and she knows it. I am in awe of the work she's done, and the way she's grown. I'm impressed with the p...