A Heartbreaking Gift of Love

While I’ve not known her long, Alana Helapitage does seem to truly walk her talk. In our rich and honest conversation, she shared her story of fully loving and then losing a mothering relationship with the daughter of a former partner and how she has bravely faced the prospect of never again seeing this child that she raised as her own.

From experience, Alana recommends that anyone entering a potential step-parent dynamic have conversations as to what you have the capacity and the desire to sustain in a relationship with the child(ren), even more importantly than the focus on the partnership relationship itself. From her perspective, if there is a child in front of her, they are the most important person in the room and in the relationship as a whole.

If only we were all raised with a bit more of this loving kind of attention…

Alana describes herself as an artist, poet and trauma alchemist and in that work she seeks to disrupt the lie that we have to constantly chase better versions of ourself. You can learn more about her here.