My parents threw me out when I was seventeen.<\/p>\n
I was pregnant.<\/p>\n
And in their eyes, that made me a disappointment they didn’t want living under their roof.<\/p>\n
My father stood in the doorway with his arms crossed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’ve ruined your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother wouldn’t even look at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remember standing on the porch with one suitcase.<\/p>\n
Seventeen years old.<\/p>\n
Pregnant.<\/p>\n
Terrified.<\/p>\n
I didn’t know where I was going to sleep that night.<\/p>\n
I called three friends.<\/p>\n
Nobody answered.<\/p>\n
I called an aunt.<\/p>\n
She told me she couldn’t get involved.<\/p>\n
Then I remembered my high school English teacher, Mrs. Anderson.<\/p>\n
I don’t know why I called her.<\/p>\n
Maybe because she had always noticed when I was struggling.<\/p>\n
She had once pulled me aside after class and said:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don’t have to pretend you’re okay with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
So I called.<\/p>\n
My voice shook.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Anderson?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t have anywhere to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was silence.<\/p>\n
Then she asked:<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you safe?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you have somewhere to sleep?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another pause.<\/p>\n
Then she said:<\/p>\n
\u201cCome to my house.\u201d<\/p>\n
I cried.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don’t have to\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I’m pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents kicked me out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice softened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we’ll figure it out together.\u201d<\/p>\n
That night, she opened her home to me.<\/p>\n
She gave me the spare bedroom.<\/p>\n
She never made me feel like a burden.<\/p>\n
She never asked me why I’d made mistakes.<\/p>\n
She only asked what I wanted to do next.<\/p>\n
One evening, she sat across from me at the kitchen table.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still have a future.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t feel like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if I ruined everything?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn’t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if I can’t be a good mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
She reached across the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we’ll talk honestly about your options.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was seventeen.<\/p>\n
I wasn’t ready to raise a child.<\/p>\n
I loved my baby before I had even met her.<\/p>\n
But love didn’t magically create money.<\/p>\n
Or a safe home.<\/p>\n
Or a future.<\/p>\n
I eventually decided to place my baby for adoption.<\/p>\n
It was the hardest decision I have ever made.<\/p>\n
I chose a private adoption through an agency.<\/p>\n
The prospective parents were a couple named Daniel and Sarah.<\/p>\n
They couldn’t have children.<\/p>\n
They met me several times.<\/p>\n
They brought me letters.<\/p>\n
They told me about the nursery they were preparing.<\/p>\n
They promised to love my baby.<\/p>\n
And they did something that mattered to me.<\/p>\n
They never tried to make me feel like I was giving my child away because I didn’t care.<\/p>\n
They told me:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are making an incredibly difficult decision because you care.\u201d<\/p>\n
I gave birth to a little girl.<\/p>\n
I named her Lily.<\/p>\n
Just for those few days.<\/p>\n
I held her.<\/p>\n
I memorized her face.<\/p>\n
Her tiny fingers.<\/p>\n
The little wrinkle between her eyebrows when she cried.<\/p>\n
Then I handed her to Daniel and Sarah.<\/p>\n
I thought I would never see her again.<\/p>\n
I was wrong.<\/p>\n
Before the adoption was finalized, I was accepted into an educational program in another city.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Anderson helped me apply.<\/p>\n
She helped me pack.<\/p>\n
She drove me to the bus station.<\/p>\n
Before I left, she hugged me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re going to build a life.\u201d<\/p>\n
I cried.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if I never stop missing her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou probably won’t.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked into my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut missing someone doesn’t mean you can’t keep living.\u201d<\/p>\n
So I left.<\/p>\n
I finished high school.<\/p>\n
Then college.<\/p>\n
I studied communications.<\/p>\n
I graduated at twenty-two.<\/p>\n
I found a job.<\/p>\n
I rented my own apartment.<\/p>\n
I learned how to pay bills.<\/p>\n
How to make decisions.<\/p>\n
How to be an adult.<\/p>\n
I rebuilt my life.<\/p>\n
But I never forgot Lily.<\/p>\n
Every birthday, I thought of her.<\/p>\n
I wondered whether she had my eyes.<\/p>\n
Whether she liked music.<\/p>\n
Whether she hated vegetables.<\/p>\n
Whether she knew she had a biological mother who loved her enough to make the hardest decision of her life.<\/p>\n
The adoption agreement allowed limited updates.<\/p>\n
I received photographs twice a year.<\/p>\n
Lily was always smiling.<\/p>\n
She grew.<\/p>\n
First into a toddler.<\/p>\n
Then a little girl.<\/p>\n
Then a child with long brown hair and a mischievous grin.<\/p>\n
She looked happy.<\/p>\n
That was enough for me.<\/p>\n
At least, I told myself it was.<\/p>\n
Five years passed.<\/p>\n
Then one afternoon, I was sitting in my office when my assistant knocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s someone here to see you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn’t make an appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat’s her name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said you would know her.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked up.<\/p>\n
Then the door opened.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Anderson walked in.<\/p>\n
I smiled immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Anderson!\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood and hugged her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n
She hugged me tightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo do you.\u201d<\/p>\n
We laughed.<\/p>\n
For a moment, it felt like I was seventeen again.<\/p>\n
Then I noticed her eyes.<\/p>\n
They were red.<\/p>\n
She had been crying.<\/p>\n
My smile faded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
She sat down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to tell you something.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it Lily?\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at me.<\/p>\n
And that was enough.<\/p>\n
I knew.<\/p>\n
She reached into her purse.<\/p>\n
Pulled out a sealed envelope.<\/p>\n
And placed it on my desk.<\/p>\n
My name was written across the front.<\/p>\n
I stared at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is this?\u201d<\/p>\n
She whispered:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s something I should have told you five years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it changes everything you believe about your baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
My hands went cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
She didn’t answer.<\/p>\n
Instead, she said:<\/p>\n
\u201cOpen it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I tore the envelope open.<\/p>\n
Inside was a letter.<\/p>\n
Not from Mrs. Anderson.<\/p>\n
From the adoption agency.<\/p>\n
I began reading.<\/p>\n
Dear Emily,<\/strong><\/p>\n There is information regarding Lily’s adoption that was withheld from you at the time because of a legal investigation.<\/strong><\/p>\n I stopped.<\/p>\n My heart began racing.<\/p>\n I continued.<\/p>\n The couple who adopted Lily were not the people you believed them to be.<\/strong><\/p>\n I looked at Mrs. Anderson.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n She closed her eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cKeep reading.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter continued.<\/p>\n Daniel and Sarah were investigated shortly after the adoption was finalized.<\/strong><\/p>\n My hands shook.<\/p>\n The investigation concerned a fraudulent adoption network operating across several states.<\/strong><\/p>\n I couldn’t breathe.<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Anderson reached for my hand.<\/p>\n \u201cEmily\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n I kept reading.<\/p>\n Lily was safely removed from their custody when she was six months old.<\/strong><\/p>\n I stared at the page.<\/p>\n \u201cRemoved?\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Anderson nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is she?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cKeep reading.\u201d<\/p>\n The next paragraph nearly broke me.<\/p>\n Because you were a minor at the time, and because the authorities believed you were emotionally vulnerable and financially unstable, the agency did not tell you immediately.<\/strong><\/p>\n I looked at her.<\/p>\n \u201cYou knew?\u201d<\/p>\n She nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cI found out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThree months after you left.\u201d<\/p>\n My voice shook.<\/p>\n \u201cYou knew for five years?\u201d<\/p>\n Tears rolled down her cheeks.<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n I stood.<\/p>\n \u201cYou let me believe my daughter was with them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was told\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou knew?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI knew she wasn’t with the family you chose.\u201d<\/p>\n I stared at her.<\/p>\n \u201cThen where was she?\u201d<\/p>\n She handed me another document.<\/p>\n It was a court record.<\/p>\n The adoptive couple had been arrested.<\/p>\n They had been part of a fraudulent network.<\/p>\n But Lily had not been harmed.<\/p>\n She had been placed temporarily with a licensed foster family.<\/p>\n Then something unexpected happened.<\/p>\n The foster family had petitioned to adopt her.<\/p>\n And the court had approved it.<\/p>\n Their names were Michael and Rebecca.<\/p>\n They had raised Lily since she was six months old.<\/p>\n I read the next line.<\/p>\n Lily is now five years old and resides with Michael and Rebecca Carter.<\/strong><\/p>\n My knees weakened.<\/p>\n I sat down.<\/p>\n \u201cShe has a family.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDoes she know about me?\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Anderson shook her head.<\/p>\n \u201cShe knows she was adopted.\u201d<\/p>\n I stared at the papers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy didn’t anyone tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause there was an investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s not an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n She cried.<\/p>\n \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n I looked at her.<\/p>\n \u201cYou were the only person who knew how much she meant to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou promised me I still had a future.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI remember.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou told me the truth mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n She lowered her head.<\/p>\n \u201cI made a terrible choice.\u201d<\/p>\n I was angry.<\/p>\n Heartbroken.<\/p>\n Confused.<\/p>\n But beneath everything was one overwhelming feeling.<\/p>\n Hope.<\/p>\n I had spent five years grieving a child I thought was living somewhere else.<\/p>\n Now I knew she was alive.<\/p>\n And somewhere, she was five years old.<\/p>\n I asked the question that terrified me.<\/p>\n \u201cCan I see her?\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Anderson nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happens if her adoptive parents don’t want me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey know about you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do they think?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey’re scared.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n She looked at me.<\/p>\n \u201cThey’re scared of losing the child they’ve raised.\u201d<\/p>\n I understood.<\/p>\n They were her parents.<\/p>\n Even if they weren’t her biological parents.<\/p>\n They had been there for first steps.<\/p>\n First words.<\/p>\n Fevers.<\/p>\n Nightmares.<\/p>\n Birthday parties.<\/p>\n They had earned the title.<\/p>\n I didn’t want to take Lily away from them.<\/p>\n I just wanted to know her.<\/p>\n A week later, I met Michael and Rebecca.<\/p>\n We sat in a quiet caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n Rebecca cried before she even said hello.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know what you’re supposed to be to her.\u201d<\/p>\n I smiled sadly.<\/p>\n \u201cNeither do I.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael looked at me.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you want to take her?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n They both looked surprised.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to know her.\u201d<\/p>\n Rebecca wiped her eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause she’s my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n I paused.<\/p>\n \u201cBut she’s also yours.\u201d<\/p>\n Rebecca reached across the table.<\/p>\n \u201cI was terrified you would hate us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe love her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe never wanted to keep her from you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n Then Michael said something that changed everything.<\/p>\n \u201cShe asks about her birth mother.\u201d<\/p>\n I couldn’t breathe.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat does she ask?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe asks whether you loved her.\u201d<\/p>\n I covered my mouth.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what do you tell her?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe truth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat truth?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat you loved her enough to make the hardest decision of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n I cried.<\/p>\n Then Rebecca reached across the table.<\/p>\n \u201cWould you like to meet her?\u201d<\/p>\n I nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n The first time I saw Lily, she was sitting on the floor drawing.<\/p>\n She had a purple crayon in her hand.<\/p>\n Her hair was pulled into two little ponytails.<\/p>\n I stood in the doorway.<\/p>\n She looked up.<\/p>\n Our eyes met.<\/p>\n And I knew.<\/p>\n Not because of some magical feeling.<\/p>\n Because she had my mother’s eyes.<\/p>\n The same eyes I’d seen in old family photographs.<\/p>\n Rebecca knelt beside her.<\/p>\n \u201cLily, this is Emily.\u201d<\/p>\n Lily looked at me.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you my birth mother?\u201d<\/p>\n My throat tightened.<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n She studied me.<\/p>\n Then asked:<\/p>\n \u201cDid you love me?\u201d<\/p>\n I crouched down.<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n I smiled through my tears.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than I knew was possible.\u201d<\/p>\n She thought about that.<\/p>\n Then held up her drawing.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you want to see?\u201d<\/p>\n I laughed.<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n She handed it to me.<\/p>\n It was a picture of a house.<\/p>\n Three stick figures stood outside.<\/p>\n Michael.<\/p>\n Rebecca.<\/p>\n And Lily.<\/p>\n Then there was a fourth figure.<\/p>\n A woman.<\/p>\n \u201cWho’s that?\u201d<\/p>\n She pointed at me.<\/p>\n \u201cYou.\u201d<\/p>\n I couldn’t speak.<\/p>\n \u201cYou didn’t know what I looked like,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n She shrugged.<\/p>\n \u201cI imagined you.\u201d<\/p>\n That broke me.<\/p>\n I hugged her only after she opened her arms.<\/p>\n She hugged me tightly.<\/p>\n And for the first time in five years, I held my daughter.<\/p>\n Not as a baby.<\/p>\n Not as someone I was giving away.<\/p>\n As a little girl.<\/p>\n My little girl.<\/p>\n We didn’t suddenly become a family overnight.<\/p>\n It was slower than that.<\/p>\n Better than that.<\/p>\n I became part of her life gradually.<\/p>\n Saturday breakfasts.<\/p>\n Birthday calls.<\/p>\n School events.<\/p>\n Christmas mornings.<\/p>\n I learned what foods she hated.<\/p>\n She learned that I couldn’t sing.<\/p>\n We laughed.<\/p>\n We cried.<\/p>\n Sometimes she asked difficult questions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy didn’t you keep me?\u201d<\/p>\n I always told her the truth.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause I loved you, and at seventeen I didn’t believe I could give you the life you deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWere you sad?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cVery.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you still miss me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day.\u201d<\/p>\n She would think about that.<\/p>\n Then she’d change the subject.<\/p>\n And that was okay.<\/p>\n Because she didn’t need my grief.<\/p>\n She needed my presence.<\/p>\n Eventually, I met her parents again.<\/p>\n They stopped being the people who had raised my daughter without me.<\/p>\n They became something else.<\/p>\n Family.<\/p>\n Not the kind anyone plans.<\/p>\n The kind life creates after breaking all the rules.<\/p>\n As for Mrs. Anderson, I didn’t speak to her for several months.<\/p>\n I was angry.<\/p>\n She had hidden the truth.<\/p>\n She had decided I couldn’t handle it.<\/p>\n She was wrong.<\/p>\n But one day, I called her.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n She cried.<\/p>\n \u201cI was afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat knowing would destroy you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt almost did.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n I was quiet.<\/p>\n Then I said:<\/p>\n \u201cBut you gave me a future once.\u201d<\/p>\n She cried harder.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you gave me my daughter back.\u201d<\/p>\n She didn’t.<\/p>\n Not really.<\/p>\n Lily’s adoptive parents did.<\/p>\n The court did.<\/p>\n Circumstances did.<\/p>\n But Mrs. Anderson had carried the secret long enough to finally put it in my hands.<\/p>\n I eventually forgave her.<\/p>\n Not because what she did was right.<\/p>\n Because I didn’t want the last five years to define the rest of our relationship.<\/p>\n Today, Lily is older.<\/p>\n She knows her story.<\/p>\n She knows she has two families.<\/p>\n She knows she was loved before she was born.<\/p>\n And she knows that my decision at seventeen wasn’t abandonment.<\/p>\n It was a desperate attempt by a frightened girl to give her child something she didn’t believe she could provide.<\/p>\n Sometimes I think about the seventeen-year-old girl standing on her parents’ porch with one suitcase.<\/p>\n She thought her life was over.<\/p>\n She thought becoming pregnant meant she had lost every possibility.<\/p>\n She couldn’t see beyond the next day.<\/p>\n She couldn’t imagine college.<\/p>\n A career.<\/p>\n Her own home.<\/p>\n And certainly not the little girl who would one day run into her arms.<\/p>\n Mrs. Anderson was right about one thing.<\/p>\n I still had a future.<\/p>\n She just didn’t tell me how complicated that future would become.<\/p>\n Five years ago, I thought giving Lily up meant saying goodbye forever.<\/p>\n Today, when she calls me, she doesn’t say \u201chello.\u201d<\/p>\n She says:<\/p>\n \u201cMom, guess what happened today?\u201d<\/p>\n And every time my phone rings, I smile.<\/p>\n Because I finally understand something.<\/p>\n Sometimes life doesn’t give you back the years you lost.<\/p>\n It gives you a chance to build something beautiful with the years you still have.<\/p>\n I couldn’t go back to the hospital.<\/p>\n I couldn’t redo the adoption.<\/p>\n I couldn’t become the seventeen-year-old mother I had once wished I could be.<\/p>\n But I could become the mother Lily needed now.<\/p>\n And that was enough.<\/p>\n One evening, Lily and I sat together looking through old photographs.<\/p>\n She pointed to one of me at seventeen.<\/p>\n \u201cIs that you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou look scared.\u201d<\/p>\n I smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cI was.\u201d<\/p>\n She leaned against my shoulder.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m glad you didn’t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n I kissed the top of her head.<\/p>\n \u201cSo am I.\u201d<\/p>\n Then she looked up at me.<\/p>\n \u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you think Grandma would have liked me?\u201d<\/p>\n My heart caught.<\/p>\n I smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cShe would have adored you.\u201d<\/p>\n Lily smiled.<\/p>\n Then she rested her head against me.<\/p>\n And in that moment, I realized the envelope hadn’t changed everything I believed about my baby.<\/p>\n It had changed something even bigger.<\/p>\n It changed what I believed about my own life.<\/p>\n For five years, I thought the hardest decision I’d ever made had ended one chapter of my life.<\/p>\n I was wrong.<\/p>\n It had only delayed the next one.<\/p>\n **I thought I had given my daughter away.<\/p>\n In the end, I learned that love had been carrying both of us toward each other all along.**<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My parents threw me out when I was seventeen. I was pregnant. And in their eyes, that made me a disappointment they didn’t want living under their roof. My father … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-keang007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41776,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41775\/revisions\/41776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}