Devon Ledbetter is a writer and editor based in Florida. She holds a BA in English from Florida State University. She currently formerly worked as a Digital Editor with Love What Matters and has previously had works published with College Magazine and Her Campus. Her favorite pastimes include beach trips, baking, and concerts. You can learn more about Devon through her portfolio https://dnl16b.wixsite.com/ledbetter-portfolio
“I recorded this conversation on my phone. It was one of the very last exchanges we ever had.”
“There was always another phone call. There were always more children. There was so much brokenness, and even if people offered praise of us being foster parents, it didn’t fix anything.”
“Who knows? With a little work, maybe someday you’ll find yourselves sneaking wine into the football game in a Yeti together like real sisterfriends do.”
“Moms are already stressed out. We do not need you adding to it.”
“I wanted to feel accomplished and admired, like all the women I had looked up to as a young woman in Cosmopolitan and now on Instagram. I’d convinced myself convinced this was real life. If those women could have it all, so could I. I bought every image they sold me.”
“My mom asked, ‘Have you heard about the van life girl who is missing?’ I couldn’t let this story go. There were so many weird similarities between her travels and my own.”
“You would never guess that before my smiling family photo, I was berated for an outfit choice. That in the pictures of me on vacation or my birthday, I’m wearing sunglasses to hide my bruises.”
“It’s there when we’re cooking dinner while simultaneously singing nursery rhymes to the baby. It’s there when we’re packing lunches, putting the kids to bed, playing hide and seek and doing arts and crafts.”
“My stomach dropped. All summer, she’d been expressing anxiety about making friends. This had the potential to be exactly the thing to crush her confidence.”
“You showed me how to handle a three-pound baby without making it seem frightening. You helped me learn how to change her diaper and give her a bath for the very first time.”
