Biological...Father?

I stood on the stoop outside of a small white house with red shutters about a thousand miles from home. The house was in a nice neighborhood in the suburbs. There were rows of identical houses next to it with similar small patches of lawns and plain black mailboxes. All of the houses appeared to be single-story ranch-style houses and the only thing that made them different was the colors. Some were white, some red, and others were blue. They had a wide array of shutters.

I only mention all of this because, if I had driven down this road just a year earlier and passed all of these houses I wouldn't have noticed the one house I was standing at. This little white house with red shutters would have melted passed me in the car and I would never have given it a second thought. It was so much like all the other ones. Of course, a year ago I wouldn't be standing on the door a thousand miles away from home regardless of how unique it was.

I was standing at this particular door because I was on a mission. It had begun over a year ago, on my 18th birthday. My birthday is in June and I had a combined birthday party/graduation party and all of my friends came over. My mom did a fantastic job of setting up decorations and everything. It was a really fun night. We'd only managed to get everyone out of the house at 2 o'clock in the morning. When we finally had some peace, mom and I flopped down on the couch. We were too tired to sleep, so we just sat there. My mom turned and looked at me.

"Kara, I am so proud of you," she said and I blushed.

"You have been saying that all day mom, you are making me self-conscious," I said and she smiled at me in that motherly way.

"You did such a good job in school. I was never very good in school, but you are smart as a whip. And you are so beautiful, so much more attractive than your old mother. I just can't believe how perfect you are. I just wish I could tell you how much I love you," she said and she pulled me tightly into her arms. I was rolling my eyes but laughing.