52 Stories: Keep it positive

Inspired by One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern, I've decided to ask people some thought provoking questions about themselves, as I feel that everyone has a story to tell. If you're just joining me on this journey today, please check out the previous posts from this series, as well.

 

I connected with this storyteller at the beginning of this year (what a great way to start off the year). She and I love e-mailing with each other about books, our kids and life in general. She's very kind-hearted and generous, as you will soon see below. I'm very thankful to have met her!

Name: Marlene Engel
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Location: Clifton Park, NY

What is an experience that is legendary for you?
Meeting our new (adopted) daughter for the first time. My husband and I had been fostering for a few years when we decided to take the next step and adopt. We had three teenage boys at home and lost our special needs daughter a few years prior to cancer. We decided to go with a private agency and assumed that it would take years. Three weeks after submitting our paperwork and home study, we received a call from our adoption worker about a newborn baby girl. A week later we were driving three hours to Long Island, NY to meet her. It was one of the best and most memorable days of my life! Unfortunately she wasn’t cleared to go home that day (she was born four months premature and still in the NICU), but we were able to come back a week later and take her home. She is now almost three years old and is my heart!

What is your guilty pleasure?
I have two guilty pleasures. My first being chick lit books. I LOVE my chick lit books and always have a book with me at all times. My second guilty pleasure would be cupcakes. I’m a self proclaimed carboholic. Cupcakes are definitely my weakness.

What is something you've never done but you would like to do?
I’ve always wanted to go zip-lining. I’ve seen people do it on t.v and it looks like so much fun and a great rush!

If you could give someone one of your favorite things as a gift, what would it be and why?
I would give someone one of my favorite books. I love reading and have even become friends with some of my favorite authors. I actually have given some of my friends books from an author that I love. They are not only loving them, but they are going to be meeting this author in a few weeks and getting those books signed. I love introducing my friends to new authors and books.

What is something you did that changed someone's life?
I know that we changed the lives of the children that we fostered. I am a huge advocate for the special needs population. When we decided to become foster parents we told the agency that we wanted to take into our home severely special needs children. It’s hard enough to place foster children, but add a special need or disability and it’s sometimes near impossible. While in our care we treated these children as if they were our own. We not only showed them what love and a stable home was, we showed them that being different wasn’t necessarily a bad thing and to embrace their uniqueness.

What part of your personality is now extinct?
I would have to say the negative part of me. I’ve had so much happen in my life that I’ve realized how precious each day is. I choose to live my life, and surround myself, with positive energy and people. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, so I choose to live each day being happy, positive and a good person.

What is one thing that you find really funny?
I find little kids to be funny. They’re so brutally honest and candid. They’re being funny and don’t even realize it.

Tell me one thing you love about yourself (or a gift you'd like to get yourself, where money is not an issue):
I would like to think that I’m a good person who makes a difference in this world. I love that I’ve had the chance to affect and mold many young lives and to show them what it feels like to be loved and cared for.

What TV show, book or movie is most like your life?
I can’t think of a show, book or movie that is like my life. What I can say is that my life would MAKE a great (or interesting) show, book or movie.

What is something that not many people know about you?
I have five tattoos. Each of my tattoos represents my daughter who passed. For the most part they are hidden and not many people know I have them. I know that some people find woman with tattoos to be ugly or unattractive, but they have a special meaning to me and make me feel like my daughter is still with me.