“So every time we open it, we remember why we’re bothering,” she said.

We never paid every bill without stress.

We did learn to handle them together, and that itself felt like something we’d nearly lost.

PART 31

I went to counseling because I had begun to dread the sound of my own phone.

Any unfamiliar number made me imagine another emergency.

Sometimes I’d wake certain I could hear Wesley crying, even when he was sleeping safely in the next room.

The counselor didn’t tell me those fears would vanish if I tried hard enough.