Cyndi Ballew Dollins - Imaginelove

I met Cyndi while in high school. I had just moved from Ohio with my family to be with my grandparents. My grandfather had suffered a series of strokes. I was the quiet metalhead kid in all black who sat on the bus listening to music and just went through the motions. I worked my tail off when I wasn't in school. Cyndi was the art geek, math geek, super intelligent and in a way, awkward teenager. But she was hot and I had noticed, but was stuck in my own little world. Her brother and sister started our relationship as Cyndi herself was too shy to approach me. Soon after her siblings made contact, Cyndi did as well. It took me a year to realize just how special this girl was. But when I did, my life changed in so many aspects it's unreal. Thus began our journey together.

We've had our ups and downs as a couple, our many great memories and many really bad ones. But what really mattered in it all was Cyndi's spirit, intelligence, and willing to do just about anything for her family and those she cared about. We fought many years trying to have children. Cyndi went through infertility treatments and all the emotional baggage that came with it. Soon after, she was fighting a migraine that lasted over 70 days. She helped her sister through this time with her pregnancy and we were there for her when our nephew was born. After the migraine ended and Cyndi was able to go back to work, we found out that she had a lot of problems with her uterus and couldn't have children. But she continued to fight. As both of us wanted a family. So, we sought out adoption. Infant adoption felt like we were going to the local Wal-Mart to choose the next product off the shelf. International didn't feel right. We had both dealt with a lot growing up and we had both been sort of counselors to kids and teens through our church. Foster-adoption felt right and that is the path we started. We started with two girls who were damaged way beyond what either of us could handle, but we didn't care, we tried. They were great children with a huge heart. It was the court system that kept failing them and it didn't work. A week before Thanksgiving in 2007, we met and fell in love with Alyssa and Ethan. They were toddlers then. It happened so fast and they moved in that same day. Afterwards, we found out they had an older brother, but no one seemed to know where he was. Funny how the system works... Cyndi started on a crusade to find him, his name, and see if it was possible to reunite him with some of his family. And she did it. LJ moved in with us mid to late 2008. We advocated for these kids, we fought with the schools, the therapists, and DFCS themselves to make sure that these kids were properly cared for.

Cyndi always fought with pain, anxiety, and OCD. It was when it was getting worse that she was tested for Lupus and fibromyalgia. But through it all, she kept fighting. She kept learning to be a mom and how to try to take one day at a time.

Cyndi was an artist, a writer, a mother, a bibliophile, a friend to anyone who would see her. She's contributed to so much in my life and the lives she's touched. I am who I am today greatly in part because of who she was.

While on Writing.com, we became moderators and met many fantastic people. We were fortunate to be able to attend Writing.com's Conventions a couple of times and even did a road trip van from Georgia to Pennsylvania. Love is a Mommy (no foolin)

https://www.facebook.com/cyndollins
https://thebookliberationproject.wordpress.com/