The start of this post could be summed up with one word. Typical. Because that's what I am. A typical teenager, surviving in the realms of normality and 'the usual'. My name is Jordan. I am an 18 year old who works on the entertainment team of an adventure park and am studying for my A-levels in pursuit of a law degree at Greenwich university.
So, yeah, it's safe to say that my life was moving in pretty much the same direction as the majority of the world's teenagers. Until last Thursday when the phone rang.
At this point I should probably brief you on the living situations of my house. I live with my mum, dad, 22 year old brother, my dog Bailey and my tortoise Rocky. And that's not all. My parents are foster parents. So living alongside the four of us lives a 10 year old boy who is suffering the shadows of autism, a girl the same age as me who is making her way through college with her sights set on becoming a social worker and, up until a month ago, a 13 year old girl, who has now gone home to her mum. My biggest problem here is I can't actually mention anybody's names because it's against the rules, and I'm no rule breaker!
So as you can imagine, life in our 6 bedroom house is pretty hectic. But following the celebrations of the young girl going home, my mum was left at a loss. The 10 year old boy goes to a boarding school so he's gone all week and the older girl practically lives with her boyfriend so the weeks were feeling pretty damn quiet. Which brings me back to Thursday night and the phone ringing.
It was a pretty average evening in the sense that me, my mum, my dad and my boyfriend Benn (I'll tell you more about him and his two N's another time) were sitting around the lounge watching Eastenders. The phone call came at about half past 7 and as always mum was the only one who made the advance to answer the house phone. She did the usual scurry to the kitchen as she spoke and not much more attention was paid to her. Not, that is, until she hurried back into the lounge and explained to my dad that there was a social worker on the phone asking if we would have an 18 month old girl as an emergency placement.
Within an hour, my dad was out picking up a cot from my uncles house and I was sitting by the window eagerly waiting for a car to pull up outside. I could feel my mums nerves radiating and filling the room, it was heavy. Finally, the car stopped outside. A woman first stepped out, and then opened the back door and pulled an angel out of the car.
As I said before, I can't tell you her name. It's a shame because if I could, I would have been able to give this post the perfect name. But I can't. But what I can tell you is that she's perfect. She's actually 21 months, she has blonde hair, blue eyes and is a spitting image of me when I was her age. From the off she loved me, within 5 minutes of being here she was cuddling me and showing me things she knew the name of. Nothing's changed, she has warmed so much to me and my mum and we already have such a bond with her. Unless you have been through this, you will never know how this situation feels. The problem is that we have no idea how long she is going to be here. And it gets harder and harder everyday. Which is the reason for this blog. I promise to record everything that happens from here on in my life. I don't promise it to be interesting but I promise it to be consistent.
So, fellow bloggers, I invite you to join me on the voyage of a teenager living the life of a teenager whilst being totally in love with a baby that I know wont be here for forever. It's time to take every day as it comes and, for now at least, it's time to concentrate on the gifts God gives us.
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