In the 1980s and ’90s when I was a kid, they used to say the South Bronx was on fire, and growing up here was very hard. There were a lot
of gangs and people robbing people. In high school I used to run from school to the bus so that I wouldn’t get beat up.
Things are still hard in my neighborhood. I live in the Highbridge section of … Read More
It is Wednesday, May 3rd, the day before my 21st birthday. I wake upfeeling sad. Something is telling me this is the day—the last morning I will spend with my kids.
It is a typical Florida day, clear blue skies and hot. It seems as if the world around us is moving so fast and we are standing still. I can’t let me kids see how sad I am. I make my … Read More
What does addiction look like? In my life it looked like birthday parties, PTA involvement, regular pediatrician visits, church going, school attendance, and then Mommy’s boyfriend is abusive and Mommy is getting high some nights of the week—that’s what my addiction looked like.
For 15 years I lived a double life. One side of me: The almost perfect mother, daughter and friend. I had a 20-year work history and I owned my own home. … Read More
Child protective services in Denver took my sister’s 12-year-old autistic son from us a little over a year ago. It is terribly painful that our boy is away from us. He needs us and we need him.
CPS opened the case two years before they took my nephew when a doctor called child protective services against us for reasons we have never really understood. For two years, the CPS caseworker left my … Read More
When I was a little girl, my siblings and I went from group homes to foster homes, from one grandmother’s house to the othergrandmother’s house, due to our parents’ drug use.
Some people might think that, growing up in the foster care system for half my life, I wouldn’t let my children go through the same experiences. Not so. I have five children and—I’m not proud to say this—all five children eventually … Read More
