The Misadventures of the Mae's

As it turns out Miss. Mae was single and running through life with great speed, she worked multiple jobs and went to school, one might think she would be in school forever.  Her passion for learning was equally matched with her passion for the creative arts.  She was ready to keep running at warp speed, flitting around wherever her whims would taker her when she had free time.  Until that day.

One day while sitting in her cubicle at her new programming job she received a phone call.  It was a life changing phone call.  There was a bit of chaos when sorting out the flood of calls associated with this one, but the end result was the same, she was to take in her neice and her nephew.  She didn't hesitate once she knew they were in danger of being placed with strangers, of course she would take them.  She didn't stop to think it all the way through, after all, what was there to think about, the children should not be strangers.

Her family, knowing her for the bachelorette that she was, viewed this move with judgement.  While no one else could or would take the children they were very quick to judge just what kind of parental figure she would make.  Miss Mae knew better than them, she had been a child without a father, and at one point lost her mother, having been raised by two fathers at various points in her life and being fatherless at some points she had a unique perspective.  Having at some point been raised by a step father who later had his own kids she also knew the dangers of raising children as though they are not yours, she could still remember the hurt she felt when he would take her sisters but leave her behind in the separation from her mum.

No.  Raising them as anything but her beloved children would not do, she could not raise them with one foot in and one foot out.  She decided she would raise them and love them as if they were her own.  She never said a bad word about their mother, and spoke only truth about the father, and made sure every night they knew how much they were loved.  Every night she tucked them in she would say "You know I love you, no matter what, even if I am mad, or sad, or happy I always love you."  Of course after a time the children would have I love you more wars with her and she would laugh and say it's just not possible.

Miss Mae was under no delusions, she knew this was not going to be easy, Mr. Sunshine her nephew and Miss. Rose her niece each came custom with their own issues they would need help with.  Society came with a new set of rules than when Miss Mae was raised, and thus the misadventures of the Mae's began.

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Now taking over parenting of children is not as simple as making a decision, emergency court sessions had to happen and emergency paperwork to get the children in school was necessary.   So Miss Mae was fortunate and unfortunate all at once.

The school year was just about to start so the children could start this year at a new school and not change mid year, but there was only one week to get the children enrolled once she obtained the proper court seal of approval. The children would be going to two different schools within the same school system so that meant she needed appointments at each school to get them enrolled and she needed them as soon as possible.

Miss Mae was in luck she was able to get into one school early in the morning, and the other school that afternoon!  She quickly rounded up the papers she needed and got the children dressed and hurried them into the car.  Breakfast would have to wait, everything would have to wait until they were properly registered for school.  Mr. Sunshine was up first, they went to his new school filled out all of the paperwork, submitted all of the papers and promptly received a list of dates they would be expected to return for various events.  It was too late to get into any type of orientation, school started the next week.

As it got later Miss Mae's stomach growled in protest, and Miss Rose must have had the same issue! Miss Rose protested the entire way to the car, "But I don't want to go to school!  I'm hungry" she wailed.

Miss Mae looked down at her and said "I know honey, but we simply have to get you registered for school first, I promise after we are all done we can all go to the Donut Shop."  She felt bad for the child, if she was hungry she knew they would be too.

Miss Rose stomped her feet and wailed some more "But I am starving!"

Miss Mae looked down once again and replied "I know sweetheart but don't you want to go to school and get super smart and take over the world!?"  A reply that she was particularly proud of and thought was rather clever, for a moment.

Miss Rose pulled on Miss Mae's hand urging her to stop and retorted with as much attitude as any 7 year old can muster "NO! Someone else is going to take care of me when I am older!" the remainder of that sentence was unspoken but anyone who knew how she had grown up could finish that statement, there were people in her life that did not take care of themselves, that always seemed to get what they want by doing the minimum, and there was always someone gullible or naive enough to take care of them, but Miss Mae would not speak of these things.

Miss Mae did indeed stop, she stopped dead in her tracks, she looked at this small child and said "Not in my house!" Came the stern reply.  "You can not rely on other people to take care of you once you are a grown up, nor should you, nor should you want to!  School is very important! Being able to take care of yourself is very important!"  Miss Mae could feel the fire stirring within, it was a great injustice that could be done here if she allowed this girl to think this way.  Miss Rose was full of potential, she was independent for her age, smart and could become someone of great importance someday, if she applied herself.  Allowing her to believe the right path was with someone taking care of her would rob the world of a potential unknown, but it would still rob the world nonetheless.  

So began the journey to educate Miss Rose at age 7 and Mr. Sunshine at age 8 and Miss Mae at age 33.

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Miss Mae had to think quick, who would watch the kids?  What work schedule was best? Ideally working from home would be best for the children since they were used to having someone home, she was skilled at web development and programming, surely there had to be something.  Finally she settled on an idea, there was a friend of hers who did work form home, and he was always overworked, perhaps she could get in there.  The idea seemed like a win-win.  Her friend would get an alleviated work load, and Miss Mae would learn more about a programming language from college all while working from home.  As it turns out his company did hire her!  She had some mixed feeling about leaving her current employ, after all they had so many perks and her boss was an absolute dear!  If she didn't have the children and child care to consider she would have absolutely stayed. But alas, she did not have that luxury. So she put in her notice and tucked away her fear and moved forward.

Miss Mae did not have a clue what she was getting herself in to with this new company.  She thought the CEO a nice fellow, her friend a good mentor and the company in general to be of a helpful sort.  In the first few months her head swam, her anxiety sky rocketed, and her health deteriorated.  She was one massive ball of stress.  She wasn't getting through the material as fast as she thought she would, her mentor was inundated with work and everything was built by him for his work style. She was constantly afraid of losing her job because the company was in such turmoil.  Her stress levels lowered her immune system which lead to her catching almost everything the kids were subjected to at school.

Finally, one day the CEO called and cut the cord, they were too small to have a learning position, and in financial difficulty so they had to eliminate her position. She hung up before she cried on the phone, sobbing she sent a message asking if she should complete the project she was already nearly done with.  He told her to take the next few weeks to find something else. She called her friend who said he was sick to his stomach over the situation. She was lost.  She had never lost a job before, never been laid off unexpectedly, and now she had a house and two kids to support!

She could have went back to any of her former employment, but she didn't want to jump into a job she might dislike.  No, her days of working someplace that was so stressful she was wracked with pain were done.  She would find something she could enjoy and continue to finish her Master Degree.  She had one option at this moment.....unemployment....she hated the sound of it, she hated relying on anything than her own hard work, but she was burnt and not ready to jump into anything, so she swallowed her pride and resigned herself to being a single parent unemployed.

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