Speak Up

It all started when my parents divorced, I was four. With a new baby sister, my mom and I moved to South Carolina, leaving my dad in Idaho. My mother was on the track to becoming a nurse, but she threw it all away just to get high. She smoked cigarettes since she was 12, all her money was devoted to that, until she found stronger drugs. She began using marijuana, and just progressed. Meanwhile, my sister and I were left alone to fend for ourselves. I raised my sister for the first five years of her life. I wasn't told to go to school so I didn't. I stayed home and took care of my sister. I remember have lots of different men in our house, and how scary it was to hear how loud they would get. To distract us, my mom would put on scary movies for us, so we would hide under blankets and not see what they were doing. The few times I did go to school, I would spend my time in the principal's office talking to social services about what was going on at home. I would be sent to school with lice in my hair and too small clothes, that weren't fit for the weather. I also was paper thin. I remember living off of Easy Mac and Ramen Noodles. I would always put my sister first. She had her whole life ahead of her and didn't deserve this. I would look in the lost n' found for clothes because I didn't have any. Every time my mother had guys in the house, I would run to the back bedroom and hide. I would hide my sister in the closet so at least she would be safe. I have scars of being burned by cigarette butts. I knew what sex and all that was. A six year old should NOT know what that is. To this day I have trouble sharing food because I have the mindset that I don't know when I will get more. My sister and I don't get along very well, because I want to be the one in charge of her. That's all I did for four years of my life! When I was eight and my sister was four, my dad was able to get custody of us. We moved back to Idaho. My dad also had remarried to the lovely Heidi, my savior. I could barely write my name, it was about as good as a Kindergartner's. Heidi got me back on track school wise, and helped me develop socially. Heidi and my dad are both in the military. So in 2007 my dad deployed to Afghanistan. About half-way through his deployment he came back on emergency leave, to break the news that my biological mother had passed away in a methamphetamine lab fire. Yep, the drugs eventually took her life. I hadn't heard from her in over three years! Not for my birthday, Christmas or anything. When my sister and I did live with her, she would take the money we got out of the Christmas cards we got from our dad. We were out of her life the day we left. Now that she had passed away, if my dad was killed in Afghanistan, my sister and I would be put in foster care. Heidi put in for adoption. My grandma (on my mom's side) tried to object but that didn't work out. Heidi was now officially my mom! It was a dream come true! I call her my mom because she has been more of a mother to me then my biological mother. My life has completely turned around. At the age of fifteen, I am now getting straight A's and I have friends, and I roof over my head and food in my tummy. Thank you Heidi.