Reznet

Emma's Home

By Christie Cooke

There has been a lot that I have sacrificed since my children entered my life. I have raised my children, basically, on my own for two years.

With very limited help from my children's father, I could not afford many of my and my children's basic needs. One of my biggest concerns was being able to provide a home for my children. It wasn't one that concerned my children's father, however.

It wasn't until I moved out of state and found a new job that I have been able to provide a home for my children. Along the way many people helped me with a place to live, of course-my family and friends-and those are the people I am forever in debt.

Friday, March 7, 2008, will be a day I will never forget.

I picked up my keys to a new apartment that day. My children were staying with my mother and were to return to me, finally!

We arrived at our new apartment complex and it seemed that Emma knew what was going to happen next. I opened the door and Emma ran through the rooms and bathrooms. She opened up closets and hid in them.

Her "OOOOOs"s and "Awwws" echoed through the empty apartment.

Finally, she stopped running around, and asked, "What's this, Mom?"

"Our home" I replied.

"Home?" she asked.

Although she did not know how to articulate this new place, she knew this was ours, for now, and she happily took ownership of what she instinctively knew was her room.

After I saw how excited and happy she was, I realized the long, hard road to get to this point was absolutely ridiculous. My children and I, and the beginnings of our lives together, especially, should have never been this way.

We deserve so much more in this life.

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Read Christie Cooke's previous Native Moms blog, "Reading as an Investment" 

Christie Cooke, Navajo, has a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona. She is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's 2007 American Indian Journalism Institute. Cooke teaches English at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan.