prologue (old version)

I should have been suspicious when I thought that all of my dreams had come true by the ripe old age of 20. I had earned a full-ride scholarship to a four year university. I had moved away from home (even if it was only 30 minutes away), had a job (as a teller), bought my first car on my own, and was financially independant. I had earned my Bachelor's degree, married the man of my dreams: handsome, smart, driven, and someone who would ‘make fun of me’ (ie-had a sense off humor). This awesome husband had also just decided that he was going to become a dentist. I wasn't trying to marry someone who would make a lot of money, but since it just happened, it was a nice bonus to know that we should be financially taken care of –after all, I have never seen a doctor that is struggling. And the final cherry on top, just had a baby girl, making me a mom—the capstone of all I thought I ever wanted in life.

I would have never believed it if you would had told me that 5 years from then I would be standing in line at the run down office of the department of economic security hoping to get approved for state health insurance. Or that 6 years from then I would be living on an indian reservation in Arizona, in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from any real town. Where my daughter would be learning Navajo in school and had classmates who lived in trailers and hogans without running water.