the unlikely minimalist
I never searched out minimalism. Rather I stumbled upon it first as a type of survival tool. Our story is a bit of a winding and twisting journey. But our minimalism story started in 2014, while I was sitting in a job interview and honestly killing it. I was trying to hold focus on the interview but my phone was exploding with text messages and missed calls.
See, while I was interviewing my heart out, a five-year-old boy with big hazel eyes had just been dropped off at our house by a social worker.
They had seen so much trauma and neglect in their short lives that every behaviour was broken. I had the skill, knowledge, tools and love that was needed. But I was exhausted—like, lie on the floor at night after I tuck them in and cry silent, hot tears exhausted.
He had been in foster care for a while and had disrupted from the last five homes. (This happens when foster parents or birth family aren’t able to meet the child’s needs and a new family has to be found.) The social worker was rather confident we couldn’t handle him either. I have soft eyes and a sweet smile that hides the depth of my love, tenacity and grit. She mentioned, almost offhandedly, he also had two little sisters. No other family had
