Unconditional
The legal age of an adult in the United States is “18.” For me, the understanding of adulthood is rooted by responsibility, hardships, pain, and laughter. For many, it is an easy thing; growing up, having their family’s support, living a “normal” life. But, for me, that wasn’t the case. I didn’t wake up one morning believing that it’d be the last day with my family. Today, four years from the very beginning of it all, I can say I am not a statistic of failed foster children. “How can one child go from an abusive home, to bouncing around from forty seven different homes, to living such a flourishing life?” well, let me answer that with my story.
It was the final class of the day, and I got called to the office. My mother had checked me out early. We get out to her van, my stepfather in the passenger seat, and I was directed to get in the back seat. What seemed unusual was that they were both in a good mood; the last week before had been pure hell between us. We pull out of the school parking lot and go to Prairie View Psychiatric Center and park beside a woman named Shelby Spencer. Little did I know this was the last day I’d see my siblings and the last …show more content…
It was time to start looking at my father and stepmother whom I hadn’t had a relationship with for six years. March 14th, 2017: my final court date; the day my world stood still until we got the news. Kim and I had gone to so many court hearings just to get a yes or no from Judge Jordan. All of it; the tears, the anger, the heartache, the laughter, the self love, the good, bad, and ugly. It all led up to this day. When Judge Jordan told me my father had full custody of me, they were making no more than $10 a day for me. That’s how much they’d helped me shape my life into what it is now. They didn’t do it for the money, But to better our statistically failing
The legal age of an adult in the United States is “18.” For me, the understanding of adulthood is rooted by responsibility, hardships, pain, and laughter. For many, it is an easy thing; growing up, having their family’s support, living a “normal” life. But, for me, that wasn’t the case. I didn’t wake up one morning believing that it’d be the last day with my family. Today, four years from the very beginning of it all, I can say I am not a statistic of failed foster children. “How can one child go from an abusive home, to bouncing around from forty seven different homes, to living such a flourishing life?” well, let me answer that with my story.
It was the final class of the day, and I got called to the office. My mother had checked me out early. We get out to her van, my stepfather in the passenger seat, and I was directed to get in the back seat. What seemed unusual was that they were both in a good mood; the last week before had been pure hell between us. We pull out of the school parking lot and go to Prairie View Psychiatric Center and park beside a woman named Shelby Spencer. Little did I know this was the last day I’d see my siblings and the last …show more content…
It was time to start looking at my father and stepmother whom I hadn’t had a relationship with for six years. March 14th, 2017: my final court date; the day my world stood still until we got the news. Kim and I had gone to so many court hearings just to get a yes or no from Judge Jordan. All of it; the tears, the anger, the heartache, the laughter, the self love, the good, bad, and ugly. It all led up to this day. When Judge Jordan told me my father had full custody of me, they were making no more than $10 a day for me. That’s how much they’d helped me shape my life into what it is now. They didn’t do it for the money, But to better our statistically failing