Never to Late to Find a Niece

Her name is Jess and she is a sweet-tatted-out-pretty-punk-girl who I believe the world will come to know. She is my niece but she may as well be my older daughter- I love her as much. She has been around 31 years but I've only known her for 7 months. Here's her story:

I was adopted. Recently (3 or 4 years ago) my wife pushed me to do the ancestry spit in the tube thing. As everything is about timing, Jess was doing the same. She knew her mother and 6 brothers and sisters (all from different fathers) but her mom died when she was very young from a drug overdose. She and her siblings were raised by her moms best friend but not without much difficulty for both the fostered kids and the foster mother.

Jess's birth mom was my sister Denise- one of 9 brothers and sisters- all from 5 different fathers. I never met her but I have recently met three sisters, two of which lived within 2 miles of me for 25 years and one, lives up north in Washington. My only living brother Pat, lives in Texas. The 5 of us found each other 3 years ago.

Jess located my brother Pat and came into the long lost family that way. About 7 months ago, Pat renewed his wedding vows with his wife Marie and invited the newly found family to meet his wife's family. It was at this event in Orange County that I met Jess for the first time.

I met her and immediately felt a kinship. She was my blood niece and its like we suddenly found each other after all these years. We talked that night, hung out, danced at the wedding party and grew as close as two relatives could after meeting so quickly. Jess is a thin beautiful girl with a permanent smile- she has orange hair and most of her body has tattoo's- she has a Rockabilly look to her- and you could look through those big pretty eyes and see a fire burning bright inside- Jess had plans- dreams- aspirations.

Jess also has two beautiful daughters- one is two and the other is seven. What was really cool about Jess is that she was about as great a mom as anyone could be - even in the face of drugs, alcohol and a relationship gone sour. Everything was stacked against her and her family and friends were rejecting her right and left. I didn't see them as family cuz "Real" families take care of their own. I wanted to be her family- care for her and treat her like my own. So I did and as difficult as some of this road has been, I have never regretted it and seem to just be growing closer to her daily.

On this road there were restraining orders, days in court, visitation monitoring with me as the monitor, Jess and girls living in a motel as a temp shelter, suffering the affects of drugs, getting off drugs, running out of money, multiple visits to the hospital with health issues and that pretty much brings us to today.

If our 3 bedroom condo, with 4 people currently living in i, had more room, Jess and girls would live with us- but we do have 1 or 2 day weekly sleep overs on a huge couch because my wife and I want them close to us.

Jess has taken handouts but has always found a way to pay us back with what little she gets- we say no but she will not have it. Jess wants to earn everything she gets- or pay people back as soon as she can. Evident by her recent 3.6 GPA, Jess wants to go to Nursing School and make something great out of her life as well as provide for her daughters that she now has 50 percent of the time.

What I learned about Jess is that all she really needed was someone to believe in her- love her- listen to her- and be her family. We are proud of Jess for what she has become when others would have given up. She is tough as nails and just needs others to believe in her as we do.

In the short term, Jess entered a contest to be the cover girl for Inked Magazine. This is a 16 day contest where anyone can vote for Jess and keep her in the #1 position where she has remained for 6 days. As is the case with all of us, we feel like we don't even have 5 minutes sometimes to do something as simple as vote... but don't we always take the time to do the things we care about? I am asking you to care about Jess and take this small amount of time to vote for her- everyone that does this, means so much to her!

There's so much more about Jess I wish I could tell you! We are moving our lives forward with her and the girls as a part of everything we do. Thanks for taking the time to read about Jess and how she has changed our lives. Look for her on the cover of Inked Magazine and please take a moment to be counted as someone who helped bring something great to someone so well deserving! Vote for Jess here: https://cover.inkedmag.com/2022/jess