My dad's question threw me off guard. It was late spring 2010 when the journey to a new open door in my life began. Already ridden with "senioritis" for the past...year, I was eagerly looking forward to my high school graduation. I was 17, and almost done with what is potentially the most important 4 years in a young adults life. I had plans to attend the Fire in the Night Internship at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, MO that next September and it seemed like my life was coming together. I was ready for this next step, but it was a bitter-sweet feeling I had about everything.
My dad, Bruce Kotila, was a Lutheran pastor, and in February 2008, had accepted a new job at Thanksgiving! Lutheran Church in Bellevue Nebraska. I had grown up in the great state of Minnesota and the move to Nebraska the summer before my junior year had probably been the hardest thing I had ever done. I left behind family, friends, a small school, and a great theater company I worked with. It had taken me about 6 months to get accustomed to my new surroundings, especially in my church. I would go to services every Sunday, but only because I was supposed to. I really didn't want a whole lot to do with the youth group, which ended up being one of the best things to happen to me. So now, a year after finally accepting where God had placed me, I felt like I was about to leave something amazing, that I had just received.
My biological mother Alisha and I had had contact my entire life. Before I was old enough to write letters and understand what adoption was, my adoptive mom, Barb Kotila, had always done a fantastic job of keeping Alisha up to date as to my growth, personality, and life, along with many pictures. Then she and I started corresponding through the mail, sending birthday and Christmas presents, sharing stories. Then in 2007, as a 15 year old, I joined the much-loved networking site, Facebook. Not long after, Alisha did as well and we did most of of our talking online. Her mother, Kathy Herrick, and I kept in contact in very much the same ways, just not as frequently. Between the years of 2007 and 2010, I became "Facebook friends" with some member's of Alisha's family. Along with Kathy, there was John, Alisha's younger brother, and Meshell, her sister-in-law, who was married to her older brother, Jim.
It was exciting having some of the Herrick family as my "friends". As an aspiring writer, and a new photographer, I always hoped that they would see, and love, the things like photos and poems that I would post on Facebook. Other than my most recent crush at the time, they were the people that I most hoped would comment on whatever clever status or cute picture I had.
So this new idea, this question that was asked of me, threw me, and my newly forming life through a loop. My biological mother and her parents coming to my graduation? Oh, man. Would I love that? Of course. I had dreamed about meeting Alisha Herrick for as long as I could remember. But was I ready for it? I realized at that moment that I was not.
Alisha Herrick, 2009
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