Before you read this, please know it is an account of my newborn adversity. Some may say I am “trauma dumping” to set up my own hero story. However, this is not my hero story. This story is about the heroes who made my story.
In one week it will be the day I entered the world, the day I was born. There is no true record of that day, except me. When I was born there were no pictures taken, no cigars handed out, no family waiting for the news. My birth mother was only 17 years old and decided to not see me when I was born. Years later I learned she felt it would have been too difficult to let me go.
The “birth” certificate I hold was actually penned a month later. I came into this world with the odds stacked against me. I was born physically dependent on drugs. The foster home I was sent to sent me back because I was too much to handle. I could not be consoled due to the physical addiction to drugs and was constantly crying, and I couldn’t keep any formula down. I had to be fed a drop at a time. I spent the first month of my life in three different places, which is not good for a newborn’s rapidly developing nervous system.
So how did I become Dr. Cathy Reneé Anthofer-Fialon after such a difficult beginning? Numerous studies have shown that childhood adversity has its greatest impact on children when they are infants given how rapidly their brain is developing. Yet, here I am. I hold numerous degrees, am successfully employed, happily married, and have raised amazing children. I am here because of the heroes. Harvard Center on the Developing Child published Working Paper #13 which discusses how resilience is built mitigating the lifetime impacts of childhood adversity. This paper details that the number one way is when a child has 1, not 2 or 3, but at least 1, positive, stable, adult relationship. At one month old, after a rocky start and still physically withdrawing from drugs I was adopted by my parents. I was in my forever home. I am incredibly grateful I didn’t have just 1, but I had 2 positive, stable, adults in my life. I credit them as my heroes. They are the reason for my success. It is my mission to help build a world where every child has 1 positive, stable, adult relationship. Just 1 is needed! Can’t we do that?
My gift to all of you this year as I turn 54 years old is to help move as many people as possible to becoming positive, stable adults. To become and stay a positive, stable adult is work. It requires taking care of yourself well so you can show up in a positive and stable way for everyone you meet. This week I, Dr. Cathy Reneé Anthofer-Fialon, begin this work I was literally born to do- build and support you to be positive, stable and the hero in someone’s hero story. This is now what I dedicate the second half of this beautiful life I’ve been given (I plan on living until I am 110, by the way) 
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