Abbi's Message : Roller Skates and Trust

"Abbi's Message" is written from the perspective of a teenager whose family decided to step boldly into the world of foster care.

When I was younger, roller skating was huge in my family. My sister and I roller skated

around the house, much to my mother’s dismay. We would go outside and roller skate around the block with our friends and some weekends we would even go to the roller skating rink. We practically lived in those pink and purple matching roller skates. I’d forgotten how much my family loved roller skating until my foster sisters came to live us.

Although they were preteen girls, they had never learned how to roller skate before.

When they saw the roller skates at the store they asked if they could try them out. Naturally my family said of course. Once we arrived home with skates, gloves, and elbow pads, we headed outside.

They seemed very nervous at first to step outside and begin learning how to skate.

Wobbly at first, they finally made it to the sidewalk. We walked beside them at first, still getting to know them we were unsure how much of our help they wanted. But soon enough they started laughing and linking arms with us to keep their balance as they started to realize why roller skating is such a joy. They began to move further down the sidewalk and even began zooming around the house.

I realized the reason they improved more and more in roller skating was because they

trusted us when we promised we would not let them get hurt. This promise gave them courage to try new things. Trusting people (which is not as fun to do as roller skating in my personal opinion) can be helpful but difficult. Seeing how they began to trust us in the little things changed my perspective. Not knowing us very well and knowing the hurt they had experienced in their pasts, made trust hard.

Trust is a gradual process not unlike roller skating. The girls still had apprehension when

we went somewhere new that we might leave them. I remember at a church event when they were afraid to go play, because they thought we might decide to leave and not take them with us.

Still, they decided to trust us in roller skating, and later on with things a little more

valuable than roller skating (although skating does have pretty great value). The fun hobby

became even more important to our family, because it was not only a great memory, but it

showed us the value of trust and being trustworthy to others and how it builds relationships,

even when it is in the small things.