It was in 7th grade the I first heard the name Joe Shampine. My bestest friend, Gretta, had been bestest pals with him and wanted to buy him a Christmas gift. So we headed downtown and went to the 5 and Dime.. We settled on a 7 dollar gold chain from the local dime store. Afterall, the only real difference between the 7 dollar version and the real McCoy is that: One, Gretta could afford it and Two, it turned your neck green. Though, I don’t think Joe complained.
It was in my high school years that I found out who Christy Jennings was. She was the blonde haired girl my brother hung out with. She was so dang pretty and the perfect girl next door. Oh, man, I wanted to be her. And if I am correct, she lived right by the candy store…all the better!
Flash forward to last summer; I saw Joe at a wedding for the first time in ions and he had married Christy almost 15 years prior. We chatted for a few seconds and when I left that conversation all I could think about was those 2 needed help getting a baby to share their enormous amount of love with. One thing led to another, stories were exchanged and here we are today doing the biggest fundraiser in my hometown of Cheboygan that Matilda Jane has ever had.
I could go on and on about all the people who have helped me, gave me a shoulder to cry on, lifted me up when I was falling, and have just been true friends since the day we met. I cannot even express how grateful I am and fortunate we are. And when it came time for Joe and Christy to finally get another round at adoption I knew in my heart of hearts that if we were in the position we would do what we can. And thanks to you all, Matilda Jane is able to help them out. They have waited so long and all I want for them is to feel the happiness and not be buried in the stress. So whatever we can do to lift that load a bit, I’m game for it. And here we have it:
by Denise
27 comments
link to this post email a friend