Brenna

       "That's right!"Gray's steady demeanor comforted her
       "So then, Mom had Luke~ sleeping with her dealer~for a few fixes~his name was Raul Juarez, who never admitted~ fathering a child~"
       Gray nodded sympathetically! "He's in prison for life for killing a police officer! And then, in the meantime, Warren shacked up with a Menda Wilkinson! From which relationship came Lindsey and Terrance! I'm not sure how, but he managed to keep his kids when he moved back in with your mother!"
       "Yes, that's just how she was! She loved kids~"
       He nodded, "Maybe because she was one herself~so determined, like Peter Pan, to never grow up~
       Brenna shrugged. Yes and no! Her mother had been such a strange mixture of vulnerable appeal and sin-hardened addict!
       "Yes, Brenna, you are correct! Your mother put a roof over the heads of children not her own~and you accept them as siblings and sense such responsibility~"
       "When we're not actually blood brothers and sisters! But we have such a common bond~that I think it's stronger than blood ties! Well, I felt such a bond! They mostly resented me trying to take over following mother's~death~if you hadn't come along when~"
       Gray nodded agreement about the Lord's timing bringing him into the equation, before continuing, "So, then, Emily is the greatest mystery of all! Some woman at an opium den handed baby Emily to your mother and asked her to look after her~And then your mother never saw the woman again~they assumed she OD'd! The reason I have a little black daughter! And you credit your mother with having a kind heart~but you're actually the one who shouldered each extra responsibility! The little mother of the clan when your mother was checked out!"
       "Well, I did what I had to! And then Misty came along after mother and Warren got back together!"
       Gray sat silently for long moments, studying her with fresh wonder!
       She flushed with embarrassment, "What?"
       "What do you mean, 'What'? You are so incredibly remarkable! Not just to have survived all of that~but to have~bobbed to the top! I mean, even before you actually met our Lord as your Savior~He~He had his hand upon you~The things you bragged to have done, and yet you actually never did~"