Twice Blessed

Twice Blessed is the compelling story of how unconditional love provides resilience to the main characters (also the authors) as they navigate, against the odds, a new family for a young Puerto Rican girl, Stefanie, who lost her mother to AIDS. In the midst of this loss, Claire and Stan Altman, who evolve from being her court appointed guardian to her adoptive parents, seek to honor the wishes of Stefanie's mother that Stefanie grows up in a loving family. To do this, they must wrestle with the mother's partner who claimed maternal rights. Through it all, Stefanie demonstrates remarkable strength and resilience. Told in their three voices, the narrative begins when Rosa, Stefanie's mother, selects Stan and Claire to be Stefanie's guardians. Upon Rosa's death, Claire and Stan are appointed as guardians by the Family Court. Their role is complicated by having to share custody with the mother's challenging partner. This story is one of healing the traumas that Stefanie suffered as she witnessed her mother's failing health, then her mother's death when she was five, and then when she had to live part time with the mother's partner who claimed maternal rights. The mother's partner's sudden death eight months into the Family Court hearing, when Stefanie was eleven years old, settled the "case," and Stefanie was adopted by Stan and Claire. Twice Blessed illuminates, through the story of the lives of Stefanie and Claire and Stan Altman, how love is the power that helps one navigate the river of life overcoming the rocks in the river which symbolizes the hurdles life deals us. The past 35 years, since Stefanie was born, have been a healing journey for all three as they learned how to be a family in which unconditional love has been the foundation of our growing together individually and as a family. The title of this book Twice Blessed: A Story of Unconditional Love was selected by Stefanie who says she was "twice blessed" by being born to her birth mother and then raised by her adoptive parents.