(Day 7) Children of Fate

McALLEN — Watching Amanda Gossett lever herself off the couch is painful.

At 30, she’s young and of average build.

But she moves like a weaker, heavier woman, straining to take pressure off her abdomen, where eight staples are holding together her skin over a recently repaired hernia.

“I feel like an old lady,” she laughs, hand on her lower belly.

But she has to get up again and again.

Four of her six children are underfoot today, the 3-year-old twins screeching and fighting over candy Gossett had hoped to save for Christmas.

Her oldest daughter, 9-year-old Shawnee, is home from school because a cold snap that morning stiffened her arthritic ankles.

Possibly sensing an opportunity, 6-year-old Bryce claimed he wasn’t feeling well this morning and is now knocking around the small, sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment, listlessly watching Home Improvement on TV.

She’s tired.

“I can’t go to work and I’m so frustrated,” Gossett says, clasping her fists. “I want to go back to work. That’s two weeks.”

She’s supposed to wait two weeks before getting back up on her feet — and maybe months, her doctors say, before she goes back to any heavy lifting at work.

But being at home with the twins, Cory and Cody, is hardly relaxing, and her friends at the nursing home are working double shifts to cover her convalescence.

The rent may hold off if necessary — she pays ahead when she can — but the electricity is not as forgiving, and they’ve been waiting a while.

12 Days

The Monitor’s 12 Days of Christmas series profiles families in the Rio Grande Valley who could use a little community help this holiday season.

The Gossetts have just enough, but are on the edge of desperation. The children do well in school, winning admiration from their teachers and counselors, who say that a little help for the family would go a long way.

Things as simple as dishes, clothes to replace the stained, torn ones the children wear to school and some spare furniture and toys could go a long way toward helping the family.

‘They’ve seen a lot’

Two years ago, Amanda Gossett did not feel this way.

She was free, exhilarated. She had left her husband, the father of her children, with help from Mujeres Unidas — a social services group that helps battered women get back on their feet — and had found an apartment and a job.

But nothing is easy, and even small snags threaten to unbalance the family’s life each day.

Cody, whose bright black eyes don’t seem to focus, may be autistic. He’ll visit the doctor soon to take tests for the developmental disorder, just as soon she can iron out his Medicaid eligibility.

The oldest, Christopher — a thin, prickly preadolescent who talks fast and delights in scaring his mother with dangerous skateboard tricks — is angry about his family’s limited means and is straining against his 9 p.m. curfew. The 11-year-old wants a professional skateboard for Christmas, instead of the battered, borrowed board he practices on.

A few weeks ago, he pulled the flimsy door off the closet in the bedroom in a fit of rage; it now leans against the wall next to the wide futon he shares with his siblings, while their mother camps out on the battered couch, often with the twins tucked beside her.

Chris takes medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which Gossett fears may blossom into the bipolar disorder from which her husband suffered.

“They’ve seen a lot,” says Gossett of frustrated Christopher and wise Shawnee, her oldest and the ones she leans on most.

Christopher is named for his father, who pays child support off and on. Gossett doesn’t know where her husband is, but gets occasional notifications from the Texas Attorney General’s office that he has gotten a new job and may be able to pay again. It’s not something she relies on.

It was easier with him around to help support the family and take care of the bills.

“We had it all, and my kids were taken care of.”

But the tumultuous relationship she says she had with her husband wasn’t worth it. The small apartment they have now is enough, she says.

Unable to afford a car, she doesn’t even mind walking to work.

“I’m OK, because they’re here with me,” she says, gesturing at the children.

Neighborly love

When the children play outside on the sidewalk, neighbor Graciela Gonzalez watches over them, sitting in a chair outside her door. The children stayed on her couch when their mother was hospitalized.

Gonzalez’s friend, Daniel Vasquez, borrows a cousin’s car to take the children to doctors’ appointments.

Gonzalez’s Christmas tree is surrounded by presents she bought for the Gossetts at the dollar store, but she says she wishes she could give more — like beds for the children, plates and glasses, a microwave, new clothes and shoes.

“They’re good kids,” she says sadly, watching them play with their neighbors on the small stretch of grass and sidewalk beside the door of their southwest McAllen home.

Nothing can stop young children from wanting. Asked what they dream of for Christmas, they ask for bicycles, video game systems, a real Christmas tree. Most of all, Shawnee and Brittany say, they want a computer and Internet access to do schoolwork and play games on.

For Shawnee and Christopher’s birthdays early this month, Gossett threw them a small joint birthday party outside. Each child got $5 to spend as they liked, since she had $10 to spare. Friends came over to eat cake.

But one of Christopher’s friends was unimpressed.

“This is called a birthday party?” Gossett says she remembers him asking.

Shawnee is quietly sure of what she wishes to buy with her $5 this cold morning. When a friend with a car comes by to check up on them, she asks to go to Starbucks.

She wants to buy a frappucchino.

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Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.