I really enjoyed this story, @nathy33. I hope Amanda runs away from her mother! I think it's so great that you became a second mother to her.

Amanda asked me to do something for her, to do her makeup for her graduation, of course I did it and she looked beautiful, but while I was doing it I reminded her that her beautiful personality and her desire to move forward despite the obstacles are her best makeup.

That is a great lesson — that a person's external beauty is only "skin deep" as we say. The more important beauty is on the inside.