A Crown at LAX And A Crisis Knocking the Wind Out of Us

Hey Mafia Miracle Makers,

This week is a bit tough but because we are family, I tell you the good, bad, and the heartbreaking.

So first, I’m gonna tell you about a miracle meetup that brought the biggest smile to my face on Wednesday.

Oh… wait… if you are new here. I’m TeeJ, and this is a newsletter all about Move-In Day Mafia, a nonprofit I founded to provide decked-out dorm rooms for HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or grapple with severe financial hardships. We have moved in 109 scholars at 28 HBCUs and currently are actively taking care of 60 students.

Now… back to my meetup.

As I told you in the last edition, I live in Atlanta now, but I went back home to Los Angeles to watch my friend and Mafia’s celebrity ambassador, Sherri Shepherd, get her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I ended up spending nearly a couple of weeks at home because I changed my flight.

Changing my flight is a key detail for you to appreciate the setup.

Another key deet you should know…

Looooooong before Mafia’s hashtag, “IBelieveInMiraclesForMoveInDayMafia,” I walked in miracles and divine alignments. So much so that whenever I’m out alone, I always whisper a prayer for God to guide me to where to sit if I have a divine assignment.

There I was. At the LA airport on my new travel day. I had gotten there super early because of the TSA shortage, only to be surprised by an easy-peasy 10-minute security clearance. With so much time on my hands, I wanted to post up somewhere I could people watch and work. So I whispered a prayer for God to show me where to sit.

I found a comfortable spot near an escalator and started working. About 15 minutes later, I hear…

“Auntie TeeJ???”

I looked up... and there was one of our Mafia babies from Clark Atlanta coming straight toward me, looking radiant and stunning.

And you wanna know what was wild?

I had just hit “send” on an email to HER mentor asking for a pic of her because…

SHE WAS HOMECOMING ROYALTY FOR CLARK ATLANTA LAST MONTH!!!!

If you aren’t familiar with HBCU culture, know THAT IS A BIG FREAKING DEAL.

And here she was… standing right in front of me...in Los Angeles!

I jumped up so fast… well, as fast as I could with my injured knee… and hugged her tight.

Turns out she’d come home to the West Coast for her aunt.

​And I was able to get a pic from her directly.

Look at her. She’s radiant.

To go from being emancipated from her parents… to living on her own her last two years of high school… to now being Homecoming Royalty… yeah… miracles. Miracles that your support helps make.
​

Now… the Part That Broke Me This Week: Sweetpea

Miracle Makers… here is where the week got heavy.

Real heavy.

The kind of heavy that you feel in your chest.

A few weeks ago, I asked for help decorating one of our scholar’s bathrooms because her doctor required her to have her own private space.

That scholar was Sweetpea.

What I did not tell you then is the part that still hurts to type.

Sweetpea’s trauma began before she even knew what the world was.

Her mother, trapped in addiction, sold her as a little tot to men.

A baby, y’all. A baby.

She contracted HIV at 5 years old, and because her mother never told her, she did not learn about it until she was 16.

She survived CPS.

She survived homelessness.

She survived watching her father be murdered right in front of her.

That trauma pushed her to major in Criminal Justice because she wanted to solve the kind of cases that left her father forgotten and still unsolved.

She is the same child who tracked down my personal cell number during move-in season and called me at midnight when she first heard about Mafia.

Why?

Because she had been dropped off at her HBCU in an Uber.

No family.
No support.
No safety net.

Just a dream.

She fought to stay in class through seizures.
She fought for normalcy.
She fought for joy.
She fought for life.

And then last week… we got the call.

Because it was untreated for so long, her HIV has progressed to full AIDS.

Suddenly.

Aggressively.

Her twenty-year-old body cannot handle the fight alone anymore.

She is being moved to hospice.

At Twenty.

And as if that was not enough, her mother, still deep in addiction, did some things so cruel and hurtful that they still make my stomach turn. Things I would never repeat out loud.

We moved in a pregnant freshman last year.

Her mother told her, “I hope you and your baby die.”

Yes.

Her own mother said that.

I thought I had heard it all… until I heard Sweetpea's mother. Unbelievable.

When my team and I learned of Sweetpea's new reality. We cried. We prayed. We sat in silence because sometimes there are no words.

But here is what grabbed me by the heart…

Sweetpea has never had a birthday cake.

Not a single one.

​So we fixed that this week.

If breath is still in Sweetpea's body, she will taste joy.

She will feel loved.

She will know she mattered.

This is why Move-In Day Mafia exists.

Admittedly, when I started Move In Day Mafia, I had no clue this was where the road would lead. I thought I was signing up for dorm rooms, décor, and a few Amazon essentials.

But God has shown me that “essentials” has a whole different meaning for the babies we serve. Essentials sometimes means safety. Sometimes means sanity. Sometimes means survival. And some days, like today...

It means holding a story so heavy it makes your knees buckle.

Because today, November 14th, kicks off our monthly #AdoptAScholar Week, we have made a special wishlist just for Sweetpea.

She's asked for a wheelchair so she can be rolled out for fresh air and we are including $25 gift cards so she can choose whatever brings her a smile… pizza, DoorDash, a movie, treat, anything that softens the days ahead.

So this month, if your heart is tugging for Sweetpea specifically, you can go to MoveInDayMafia.org/AdoptAScholar and click on "Sweetpea’s Special Care List."


ADOPT A SCHOLAR WEEK STARTS TODAY

Today kicks off November’s Adopt A Scholar Week, and I want to give you a heads-up because things will look a little different.

Some of our scholars will have their usual Amazon wishlists.

But several others will have gift card-only lists.

Why?

Because we are heading into the holidays, which means many of our babies will be couch surfing, bouncing between relatives, staying with mentors, or simply unsure where they will be.

When a student does not have a stable address, gift cards are the safest and most reliable way to support them.

Just like this past Summer Survival Season, Visa gift cards let them buy food, toiletries, transportation, or whatever else gives them relief during the instability of break.

The heart is the same. The needs are real. And every single purchase matters.

If you are joining us for November’s Adopt A Scholar Week, everything has to be purchased by the 21st. There is your starting point:
👉 MoveInDayMafia.org/AdoptAScholar

Some weeks, family, the biggest miracle is that we’re still standing at all.

I’m not gonna pretend I have a hype word or a clever nugget today. I don’t. This week has been heavy, and I’m letting it be heavy. Sometimes existing is the assignment. Sometimes the holiest thing you can do is breathe, feel what you feel, and not apologize for it.

We live in a world that loves to rush past pain… wrap it up pretty… sprinkle a little glitter on it… and call it “resilience.”

But real healing? Real strength? It means you go through the feelings, not around them.

So if this week has knocked the wind out of you too, let this be your permission:
Sit with it.
Feel it.
Honor it.
Don’t numb it.
Don’t sprint past it.