“After my adoptive parents left me, I bounced from couch to couch with friends and ultimately ended up homeless, where I became the victim of sex trafficking. Life felt completely hopeless, but I persevered.”
‘My adoptive mother told me she no longer wanted me when she had her own children. They abandoned me on the streets.’: Gay adoptee becomes advocate after enduring abuse in foster care, transracial adoption
‘The evaluation read, ‘Keri’s past can best be characterized as chaotic, emotionally inadequate, and abusive.’: Woman details traumatic foster care and adoption, shares healing journey
“In 4 short years, I’d been removed at birth from my mother, placed into foster care, reunified with my birth father, and then placed back into foster care. I’d experienced family separation, failed reunification, abuse, neglect, and had already been named, renamed, and named again.”
‘My abuser is a free man. Free to prey on more innocents, free to destroy more lives. I’m not willing to be silent anymore.’: Abuse survivor candidly shares journey of pain and resilience
“They say when people drown, it’s silent. Nobody around them can see them, hear them, or help them. The person drowning is slipping further and further beneath the surface, slowly suffocating. That’s what it felt like. I was drowning every day, suffocating, desperate for a breath, watching to the world around me carry on, with no idea that I was dying. But no matter how hard, I always choose to keep going.”
To My Abusive Parents: Because Of You, I Will Live Life With An Abundance Of Love
“I was the little girl whose story no one knew. The little girl who hid in closets. My screams for help were never heard outside the four walls of my home. And yet, I am living proof you can heal.”
‘I shoved my newborn into my husband’s arms before violently jumping and screaming, ‘I’m not going to die!’ I hadn’t slept the whole time.’: Mom with bipolar disorder shares journey with postpartum psychosis
“I admitted myself to a psychiatric facility. My husband went back to our newborn by himself, without paternity leave. I want to make sure other bipolar women don’t give birth without being prepared.”
‘I’m no longer that angry little girl who was hurt. With my mom, it’s like it never happened.’: Abuse survivor adopted as adult finally has loving mother relationship
“In my mind, I accepted I was born to grow up as an adult without parents. But in my heart, I was broken holiday after holiday needing them. I was torn on my children’s birthdays, when they had no grandparents there. I cried for years trying to fill the void.”
‘You’re not in a morgue. Girls get raped and murdered every day, you’re not dying!’ I had to get out.’: Adoptee opens up about mishandling of her child sex abuse case, escaping home at 18
“‘What happens in this house STAYS in this house.’ I lived in a world where not only my adoptive mother would cover this up, but my own biological sisters AND our assistant pastor. The minute I turned 18, I was escaping.”
‘Mom, believe me! I didn’t do it!’ he cried. ‘All 3 of them can’t be lying!’ It scared me hearing him try to manipulate his way out.’: Adoptee opens up about years of sexual abuse from older brother
“My heart sank, a lump formed in my throat, and I was frozen in hell. I knew what she was going to say. I knew why my sisters were crying, and before my mouth could form any words at all, the tears began pouring down my face.”
Single Dad Has Fostered More Than 60 Teens Over Last 15 Years
“I guess you could say this is the path laid out for me, and I will continue to walk it as long as I am able.”
‘I spent half the day in the bathroom, desperately wanting to flush my dope down the toilet but being completely powerless.’: Former heroin, meth addict shares her incredible recovery
“When I tried heroin for the first time, I felt what I imagined the love of a mother must feel like, like a warm hug from the inside out. I believed I had finally found security and love.”
