I met my step-mom for the first time when I moved to America to be reunited with my father. From the beginning she made sure to let me know that I was safe and welcome.  I remember when I first saw her at the airport. It was different but not uncomfortable. After I was picked up from the airport we went home and she unpacked my luggage. Then she took me shopping for new clothes since the ones I had brought with me from Africa were a bit worn. That night before I went to bed she came to my room, which was the first room I had ever had for my own, with the first bed I didn't have to share. She told me she was glad to have me and that she would take good care of me. Before she walked out of my new room, she asked me for a hug. I had no idea what she was talking about. I did not know what the word hug meant, not because I didn't speak English, but I had just never heard the word before, let alone knew what it meant. So, I just looked at her with a questioning expression on my face. But she didn't give up. She called my father into the room and asked him to explain to me what she meant. When my father was explaining I looked at her and wondered why she wanted to hug me. She then told me it was because she loved me and opened her arms wide. Shyly I opened mine and we hugged. That was my very first hug and I was 11 at that time. I'm 23 now and, thankfully, I have received many hugs since then. I consider her my birth mother because life began when I came to stay with her. For the first time there were no kids for me to take care of and I became a child for the first time. There was no work waiting for me every day other than the occasional chores that she gave me to teach me responsibility.  Today I say thank-you to my mother; thank you for giving me my childhood back after it had been taken away from me. I am who I am today because of your love! We may learn from the passage that the author   _  .
didn't need to do any work in her second home met her new mom when she was nine years old felt safe and loved by what her new mom did had a very big family to support in Africa