Hands To Heaven

A New Friend

Mia
I can't get enough of my second cousin, mom has limited my buying her outfits. She made us take back most of them. Mom pointed out that Tessa is growing and she can't possibly wear all the clothing that we got her. She was right and we found out she hasn't even worn the ones I bought her when she first arrived. We went through everything and donated them to the charity of mom's choice. We delivered them as well. We took two thirds of the new clothes back to the stores and assured them once she outgrew her current clothing we would be back. Tessa told me that she would prefer to go to the thrift shops and pay less for her clothing than pay so much for things she was outgrowing. She waited until we left the store and told me the stores she recalled buying when her mom had the money to get clothing. We drove to the stores and my security was very concerned that we were even in the area. They went with us and we looked at all the things and we walked out with two carts of various things for the twenty percent of the price of the cheapest dress that we bought at the other store. We will be going to other stores next time. We dropped off some of the items to the homeless shelter.

Tessa
I can't believe Mia pulls out a card and we leave with whatever she finds. I heard the amounts and gasped and I tell her that I need cheaper clothing and would like to go to thrift stores for clothing, well no underwear. We buy certain items at a cheap discount retail store. I donated the extra American girl dolls and outfits to the hospital for the children who are stuck there. Anastasia was fine with it. I don't need much and had very little and it never mattered to me. I feel overwhelmed by all the attention and all the gifts. We are having to adjust to each other, mom and my brother died a day apart from each other and they were buried by the Grey family. I am Grace and Carrick's great niece and their children's second cousins. I have no other relatives. Mom put Grey as my last name because I am a Grey, my father was a Grey. He is dead as well. Great uncle Carrick is the only Grey left besides me in his family line. So here I am all cried out about mom and my brother dying. I hear the door open after a soft knock on the door, I am sobbing again as Grace comes into my room. She brings a box of Kleenex and a glass of water and sits down on my bed and gives me a tissue and pulls me into her arms and on her lap. I finally let her hold me as I cry for my loved ones.

Grace
I hold her and give her water and let her cry until she can't any longer. I think meeting everyone reminded her of what she has lost. Mia comes in and sits with us. Tessa finally asleep. Mia tells me she will stay with her tonight so she can feel not so alone in the world. I guess she might feel that way since her mother and her brother were all she had in her young life. She is just getting used to them being gone for good. We might be related to her but we are strangers to her. Mia has gotten closer to her than any of us.

Mia
Mom leaves after we cover Tessa up, I lay down next to her and watch until I fall asleep under the throw blanket. I hear her crying and I pull her into my arms and she falls back to sleep. I start staying over and reading to Tessa. Mom joins us when her schedule permits. Dad comes in and reads as well. It's been two months and she is able to sleep through the night without me being in the room. We have a baby monitor in her bedroom room and we all have the app on our phone to look in on her. She now has a tiny teddy bear to hug in her sleep. We read her soothing stories before bedtime. She knows how to read and write already. We didn't know until she asked for her book that her mother read to her regularly. She started reading it. I looked at the books she was reading and they were for children her age, but this one was for older children and educational subjects. Of course we let her pick books out from my parents library. Even I am learning things. Amazing how you can learn so much from a child. Mom says wait until I have my own child and I will be better since I am around Tessa.

Anastasia
Christian and I have decided to adopt a child who needs a home and later on have our own. We are going to fill out paperwork for being placed on the list. Kate has decided to have her own child this year. David has gotten past the terrible twos and has started using the big boy potty and is eating with utensils. He makes a mess but who doesn't at that age. Elliott has a mat he brings to cover the floor under David and they have learned how to contain the spillage. We have a lot of photos of David and his food intake and his throwing food at his mom and dad that he doesn't like. Kate says don't laugh your time will come as she is trying to clean the mashed potatoes out of her hair.

Christian
Anastasia brought the great mashed potato tossing that we had to get photos and videos of, David has a great arm for throwing and mashed potatoes are hard to throw at anyone. Talk about a huge mess in the parent's dining room. The walls were a disaster and had to be cleaned and painted. Tessa enjoyed it and she finally laughed at dinner and seemed to finally feel safe with us.