“Where’s my blanket!” I remember screaming in the car on the way home from my grandma’s house. We were half way home and I realized I didn’t have my blanket and made my mom turn the car around. She drove as fast as she could as I screamed in the back of the car, not calming until I knew my blanket was in my hands. Time went on forever until we finally got back to my grandma’s. We searched up and down the house, but my blanket was nowhere in sight. I became frantic because that blanket meant everything to me. I finally found it under the couch and I felt a sense of relief. Some people may think I was over reacting, but no one but my family knows how special it is to me.
Before I was adopted from Iowa my birth family gave me my baby blanket. They wrapped me in it while I took the plane ride to Illinois to my new family. My adoptive parents kept the blanket so I could keep a part of Iowa always with me. I took my blankie everywhere; outside to play, to the store, anytime I left the house. My blanket is white and blue and it has a boat on it with zoo animals crowding in it. The other side has blue, pink, yellow, and green polka dots. On the boat it says, “USS Love Boat” to remind me how much my birth family loves me.Surprisingly, it’s not torn and tattered like other blankets because I made sure to keep it in perfect condition. It’s as soft as cotton candy and warmer than the sun. This blanket never left my hands until I was 5 years old and eventually I decided I would only sleep with it. I laughed, danced, played, and cried with this blanket. At the time, I only thought it was special because it was from my birth family. My warm, soft blanket sang me to sleep at night and I never felt afraid. My mom thought it was time I should sleep without a baby blanket when I was 8 so she hid it in the basement closet. One day, when I was 12, I was searching through that closet and saw my blanket sitting at the top of the shelf. It’s funny how I couldn’t leave without my blanket, but one day I didn’t even realize it was gone.
Since then I realized it wasn’t just a special object from my birth family, but it helped me feel connected. My blanket was a way of letting my birth family be there in spirit and see everything I did. Now that I talk to my Iowa family all the time, I don’t need a blanket to help feel connected. My blanket still sits in my room as a reminder of who I am and where I came from.