Applicant #5: Karla Petersen
Verity Mom TeamKarla Petersen is a mom from Seattle.
My video application:
Find me online:
A bit about me:
My name is Karla and I have been a foster/adopt single mom for more than 20 years. I have parented many children over the years and I have 3 adopted daughters. I am also helping my oldest daughter raise her 7 year old son while she gets on her feet. She’s a really good mom and I am honored that she is trusting me to help with her child.
I am a part time nurse and I have just recently started my own photography business to give myself a chance to work with something I love, to have more flexible work hours, and maybe even to get off graveyard shift work! Can I give a plug? It’s KPR Photo Opps and my website is www.KRPphotoOpps.com. Check it out!
In my free time (?!?), I like to do a variety of fibre arts (quilting, spinning, weaving, knitting), to read, and to take long walks with friends.
The three kids at home are in separate phases of life…one is in high school, one in middle school, and one in elementary school. They also do sports (gymnastics, swimming, softball, volleyball) and my 16 year old has recently started her first job, has her driver’s permit, and has a new boyfriend. I also expect the kids to help others and Areal has chosen to do projects with Treehouse, a wonderful organization that serves foster kids; Ella has been cooking and serving at a homeless shelter downtown once a month for a couple of years. Between school activities, sports, and friends, there are days that I literally drive around in circles!
I love being a mom, I can relate to many different moms, and all of my financial decisions (work, spending, saving, banking) revolve around creating a safe, happy childhood for the kids I have been entrusted with. Having said that, I do NOT understand why anyone banks with large commercial banks any more. Credit unions are community focused and relate to our finances in a non-confrontational, supportive manner. Love, love, love that! WooHoo Verity!
My blog post:
I had the most extraordinary conversation with my 13 year old daughter on September 11th. It was the 10th anniversary of the terrorism attacks and my Ella had a lot of questions. She’d never seen video of the events of that day, so we found some footage on the internet and watched together. Out of it came a conversation about why that happened, what has happened since, how people have helped and she asked if I had done anything to help when it happened. Our conversation segued into how each person can use their own gifts and their own calling to make a difference in the world. I explained that I was busy being a mom at the time and that I couldn’t go to New York or join the military or comfort the bereaved. But that I was doing my own piece here in Seattle to make my community a better place. Ella asked me if nursing was how I worked to make the community better and I told her that being a nurse was part of it, but that my r eal calling was to be a mom to kids who wouldn’t otherwise have a ‘right here’ mom. “Like me,” she said (Ella had come to me as a 5 year old – an “emergency placement” within the foster care system). “Like you,” I replied. She was snuggled next to me by then and was quiet for a moment, then sat straight up and looked at me with a grin. “Then that means that you’re helping the homeless men downtown, too.” I asked her what she meant and she replied, “You helped me and now I’m serving down at the homeless shelter. If you hadn’t become my mom, I couldn’t help them, so it’s like all the good you do with us kids gets bigger and bigger when we go help someone else.” My heart caught in my throat at the moment. What more could us moms hope for than to see our children begin their own journeys into THEIR gifts and THEIR dreams and THEIR hearts?
Of course, the next morning, Ella was still 13 years old and picked a fight with me about whose fault it was that the pants she wanted to wear that day weren’t clean. I still contend that it was her fault, since the pants were in the laundry basket in her room and NOT down in the laundry room. : ) But in the middle of that morning argument, I got some grins with the 7 year old…Ezekiel tripped and fell forward, popped right back up with a grin and told me, “It’s a good thing I have knees! Or my face would be a hurt right now.”
I feel so blessed by the kids in my life! I purposefully work part time and do with less, so I can have more of everything with my children. I hope I am teaching them to live within their means, but to give generously; to honor their own time and needs, but to be available when they see a need (from loading the dishwasher to collecting leotards for foster kids); and to recognize and honor the gifts they’ve been given and the gifts they are to all of us around them.
Karla
Reader Comments (1)
Karla, how wonderful that you are helping kids who need a "right now" mom. The lessons that you are helping to share with them about giving back to one's community are life-changing. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us readers!