Gò0dNews for Kids
There Is No Place Like Home
M
by Sue Lagermann
y first day at a new school was very frightening to
come up with another plan. Since I colored with my right
me. I had never ridden on a school bus, but that
hand, I would turn right at the first street I saw and keep
was how I was going to get back home. I couldn’t
walking. I stuck to that plan. As I was walking in the rain,
wait to get home. I just knew that while I was at school,
tears were pouring down my cheeks. I will keep walking
my mother and baby brother were having all kinds of fun
all the way to China. I will never see my daddy, mother,
without me.
brother, or sister again.
My mother told me to look for my sister when I got
I heard a horn beeping behind me. When I turned
on the bus. I searched for Cindy, my older sister. I could
around, there was my daddy and sister. Cindy was crying,
always count on Cindy to help take care of me. She was
and my daddy was waving to me. I was so happy they
my big sister. When I couldn’t find her, I felt panicky. My armpits felt like someone was sticking needles and pins into them. Who was I, a dumb old first-grader, going to sit with? I wanted to sit with my sister. I was lucky to have a secondgrader for a sister, but where was she? I looked at all the faces in the front of the bus. I couldn’t find my sister! I wouldn’t dare go farther back in the bus where the third, fourth, and fifth-graders sat. The lump in my throat made it hard to swallow. I sat down in the closest seat I could find. I had no idea where or how I was going to get home. To keep from crying, I kept biting those
had found me. I was going home. When we got home, my
little bags in the corners of my mouth until they bled.
mother and brother were waiting at the door. Daddy said I
The big orange bus started to roll out into the street.
was walking in the wrong direction like a little lost sheep.
That’s when I realized I had to figure this out on my own.
My mother said that would never happen again because she
I looked out the window and saw it was starting to rain. I
asked the fifth-grader across the street to make sure I found
didn’t have an umbrella to use, but that was okay. No one
my way home every day.
will see my tears when I try to find my way home. I came
(Psalm 119:105).
stops and exit. As I got off the bus, I realized I needed to
8 // April 2020
About The Author
up with a plan. Since I was 6 years old, I would count six
Sue Lagermann has been involved with the Floyd County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) program since 1998 as a volunteer and became the director in 2004. Before becoming director, she advocated for over 20 children in the foster care system. She is the author of Violet Daisy Flowers becomes a Foster Kid, which is about an 8-year-old child’s journey through the child welfare system. Sue is the mother of six and grandmother of 11 children. Sue and her husband Bob reside in Aragon, GA.
