Rebekah/Elias

When I was told I was medically unable to have a baby I was devastated ... that was until a friend of ours called me one afternoon to tell me that his wife's sister was living on the streets of Los Angeles and her daughter (their niece) had been placed in foster care. We decided to go and see her. It was just a chance but we ended up bringing that little bundle home. We all fell in love with her.

Bekah was always a "different" child. She was a born leader and when she didn't get her way you knew about it. Bekah would wake up in the middle of the night, sit up straight in her bed and scream like as if she was in pain. Some refer to that as "night terrors". We tried so hard to make her life as normal as possible. We went on vacations, took trips, and we had fun as a family but I recall that she would act out occasionally.

The students at school would mock Bekah. She even got ridiculed by teachers. She did rub some people the wrong way. She was not the easiest child to get along with but she had some friends. When elementary school ended and I noticed boys picking on her, we decided to switch her into a new program for sixth grade at a neighboring elementary school and she did well there. She got good grades and won student of the year. The following year she moved to a middle school close by for seventh grade.

Seventh grade got off to a bad start. Bekah begged us to move her to a private school, which we did. Not long after starting school there, she began talking about being a "furry". I did some research on it, but there was not a whole lot of information back then. One day I got a call from the school psychologist who said Bekah had talked about suicide. Not long after that we switched her to another school where she claimed she was autistic.

After finally finishing high school, Bekah further delved into being a furry. Then she took a step further and she told us she born to be a man. We tried to be good parents, and we were not positive what to do but I will tell you this ... mental health/furry/trans seem to be connected.

After school she moved out. Next thing, I am looking at my husband’s Amazon account and see something that made me wonder... who is buying these items and why? I asked my husband about the purchases while my mother-in-law was in the room and she gasped when she heard my question. She said the items were for someone getting a mastectomy. We knew who that was. I was devastated.

I still don't get how they let someone who is bi-polar have this kind of surgery. My mother-in-law took it upon herself to write Bekah and point out that she was born a girl and that God didn't make mistakes. In response to that letter, Bekah called and screamed at me. She said she never wanted to see or talk to me again. That was five years ago. Elias (yes, she changed her name) now lives in Chicago with her partner. I would give almost anything to talk to my child. Just to say “Hi, how are you?” “I love you and miss you!” but, truth be told, I am okay with the calmness of my life now.