Anyway, three years ago my mother was kidnapped. I cant believe how much life has changed in these three years. We have all moved around so much and life seemed tossed up in the air for so long. Even a year ago my whole family was still resting on uncertainty.
In the past three years:
My parents fled to Miami where my dad searched for a job for a year before getting one that took him to Bradenton, Florida. My mother, meanwhile, pingponged between Guatemala (depressing after you've lost your roots there and you have to spend your time tying the loose ends of your traumatic experience) and Florida. After they settled in Bradenton, my parents seemed to be set until my dad got laid off. It seemed another long search would be ahead but, once again proving that you never know where life will take you, my dad got hired by a chain of hotels in St Lucia, a small island country in the British west indies. Pretty much paradise. However, in order to keep one foot in the USA, my parents bought a house in Bradenton. Now my parents split their time between a mangrove-lined property on Walker's Island in Bradenton and Emerald Manor, the name of their 100 year old home in St. Lucia. Oh, and my parents are now re-married. :)
My sister... sigh my sister has also been all over the place. She got pulled out of med school when the kidnapping happened and floated around wherever she could stay for a few months after, going to Illinois with my grandparents, NYC with me and Florida with my parents. Ultimately, she opted to go back to Guate where she lived in an apartment on her own since we could not live in our home. That year treated her like hell (her and everyone else in that med school) and the situation in Guatemala got worse and worse. Plus, we felt we had abandoned her and I am sure she felt abandoned. So we pulled her out again, pulled every string we could think of, tried to turn the world upside down to make it possible for her to go to med school here in the US and get out of Guate. Alas, after MCATs and letters and frustrations and studying and consoling and frustrations, it was impossible. While our attempt to get her out of guate again caused her to have to repeat a year of university, at least it gave her a good few months with family, knowing that we were always thinking about her.
My brother, who only got to really comprehend the extent of our situation a year after my mom was kidnapped and we all went back to the trial, moved away from Virgina after a break up and took up a Masters degree in the Miami Art Academy or Academy of Art or something, which he will be finishing off in a couple of months. He is close to my parents and hopes to be a professor.
What can I say? We have all gone all over the place in these past three years. I am just happy that, unlike Aug 17 2009, I can say that everyone in my family is on a path to something positive. For the first time in three years we can make plans that extend past a couple of weeks because we are no longer standing on such unsettled ground.
Three days from now I will celebrate- my mom and my family survived something awful and here we are three years later with a bright looking future ahead.
I love you Mom, Dad, Jess and Jonathan :) cannot wait to see you again!
