Ailana’s Journal—2026-05-24 (Patreon)

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WE COULD DO THIS by Izzy Duffy

After breakfast at Denny’s, we joined all of Ailana’s friends at the church they attend. It was really nice.

The plan was that we’d leave this afternoon and fly back to Brooklyn. Sasha had another thought.

“You two should stay a couple more nights.”

“We only had hotel rooms for last night,” Kent said.

“Can you get time off?” Clay asked. “You could crash at Ailana and Jason’s condos for a few nights.”

It took us about three minutes to decide to accept. A few calls later, we had a new plan.

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YOUTH GROUP? by Josh Ryan

Parenting, they say, doesn’t come with an instruction book. Adoption comes with lots of guidelines, and caseworkers go over many, many things.

Not covered? How easy it is for a nice guy to get on the social radar of some church kids.

Let me go back an hour.After church, when I realized Jasmine and Micah had connected with Kel, I invited them to join us for lunch. We let Kel pick, and he went with Subway.

We ordered it to go and brought it back here. A few minutes ago, Geoni thought it was a good time to mention something that’s been on her mind.

“Kel, some of us were talking about how important church youth group was to us growing up. What do you think? I found a church on Google that has an active group.”

Kel looked at her and nodded. “Island Baptist?”

She looked at me as if to ask if he could read minds, then turned back to him. “Yes, that’s the one.”

“I was going to ask about this later,” Kel said. “I got invited to go Wednesday. I figured I could wait until after the wedding.”

“Invited?” I asked.

Kel started to explain. “I met a girl…”

Micah looked at him with an older sibling expression. “Bro? What?”

“On Friday when I was walking. Her dad’s a Coast Guard chief. She just moved here from Galveston.”

Geoni looked at me again. “That’s got to be the man Allen mentioned.”

Kel went on to say she was new, too, and that Brooks, from Whataburger, and a guy named Mateo, who does yard work, had invited her. “She said we could go together if our parents allowed it.”

I got hung up—in a good way—on him referring to me as his “parent.”

“Bro,” Micah replied, “Mateo’s the guy that does the yard here. He’s legit.”

Kel nodded. “Well, Brooks and Jenna added me to a group Snap with Mateo and some guy named Gabe. They all go to Youth Group. I’d like to go.”

I’ll end this story by saying that my reply, if I were Gen Z, would have been, “Bet!”

THE WORD THAT LANDED by Josh Ryan

I know Kel was basically quoting Jenna. She said they could go together if their parents allowed it, and when Kel repeated it, he was probably just using her words.

So I’m trying not to make too much of it.

But I’ll tell you what I can’t get past: how it felt to hear him say it.

Parent.

Not Josh. Not Mr. Ryan. Not “the guy adopting me.” Parent.

I don’t know if he meant it that way. I don’t know if it slipped out because that was the shape of the sentence. But for about half a second, everything inside me stopped.

Later, Geoni and I talked about it after Kel went to his room.

“I wish I’d have caught that when he said it,” she told me. “But on second thought, I probably would have cried.”

That’s about where I am, too.

This process has paperwork, signatures, visits, questions, rules, and more patience than I knew I had. But then one word lands in the middle of lunch, and suddenly the whole thing feels less like a process and more like a life.

Geoni and I agree on this much: we have no regrets about adopting Kel.

Only hopes.

Only wishes.

Only prayers that we can become the kind of parents he deserves.

NEW GUY by Mateo Alvarez

NEW GUY by Mateo Alvarez—After church this morning, Gabe Morales asked me what I had planned for the day.

“Bruh, if you say you’re cutting yards today, then we’ll just have to stop being friends.”

I know he was exaggerating. “Nah, no yards today. I don’t schedule any on Sundays as a rule. I did one last week though.”

I told him about Chief Mercer’s yard from last week. “That’s where I met Jenna.”

Gabe’s dad repairs golf carts for all the island people, and he wanted to take out one of the loaners no one needed. He said we could just cruise around the island and see if we could entertain ourselves.

We ended up at Whataburger for milkshakes. Brooks wasn’t working today, but that reminded us of something.

“Hey, that Jenna girl you did the yard for…same girl Brooks added us to the group chat with, right?”

“Yeah, her.”

“Do you know the new dude?”

I shook my head. “No, but he seems chill.”

“Yeah. We should Snap him and see if he wants to cruise.”

I looked at the time and shook my head. “Next time. I probably need to get home and see if Mom needs anything done before the weekend is over. Mom and Dad’s work is crazy busy with all the tourists.”

“Yeah, well, maybe he really will come to youth group, and we can meet him face-to-face. That would be cool.”

I agreed.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH by Sofia Torres

After Mass today, there was a luncheon for people my age. The parish does this thing once a month.

Someone thought it would be good to have couples and singles come together for a meal. Okay, not bad. What is bad is the name they gave it: Pairs and Spares.

I’m a spare? Like if one member of a couple feels the need, I can take their place? It gives the “third wheel” concept a whole new—not favorable—meaning.

I’m going to email the pastor and tell him what I think about the name.

I’m also thinking that I’ve been a spare long enough.

Being called that has left me thinking about my situation. I’ve said before that I moved here in early 2025 and haven’t really been able to do much more than hold on.

But now I’m a manager at a factory. I have a little more than I need. I’m paying bills, sending my parents some money, and saving a little. For the first time in my life, I can think about more than right now.

I’d say that the people who work for me are nice. We all get along, and it’s fun most days. But it still feels like—mostly—work relationships instead of social.

I hear Micah talking about things his friends on the island do, and it sounds really nice to me. I could see myself with friends like that and really enjoy it.

So after thinking about the spare thing, I guess I’m ready to say I’d like to develop meaningful social relationships with some people. Eventually, I’d like to date, but that feels too soon right now. I’ve got some shallow reasons, like not having cute clothes, which I know aren’t really important.

I guess where my thinking is right now is that I’m ready to admit that I’m beyond feeling bored. I’m ready to admit that I’m lonely and that I’m ready to start doing something about it.

WEDDING AND WORK by Kaylee Branch

I’m laying here watching the best man in the world with the best little boy ever! My heart is so full, I hardly know what to do.

Me and Isaac worked all day after church today. We went to Ailana and Jason’s wedding yesterday, so we had an extra rental flip today.

The wedding was really nice. It was simple and meaningful, and I thought that was how it ought to be done.

We caught up on work in time for a late dinner, but Hudson was worn out. It’s funny how a tired kid won’t go to sleep, but it’s a fact as far as Hudson goes.

But right now, I get to lie here watching Isaac, and it just fills me with joy to see how good he is with our son. He’s two now, and that crib is getting too small.

We don’t have an exact plan about what to do yet, but Allen Geven calls it a direction to go. He got Clay and Josh to help us set up First Call Property Services, and it’s taking off faster than we expected.

We still do rental flips all weekend, but normally things would slow down on Tuesday. Now, we’re not just sitting around with little to do.

We’ve got jobs lined up all day Tuesday and Wednesday already, and about four hours lined up on Thursday. We’re netting a little more than $25 an hour. Clay says it’s called “door-to-door time,” meaning the time from when we head to the job until the time we leave.

Once we get better at it, we think it will be more. We’re working on that.

Isaac joked that if we keep growing this fast, we’ll have to hire help. That would be crazy! Us poor kids from nowhere giving someone else a job.

That’s probably moving past planning into dreaming…

That’s all from the camper! Good night.

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