“My younger sister woke up while it was happening. She said, ‘Daddy can you do that to me like you do to Shannon?’ He told her, ‘No it’s only for her.’ The hardest words to swallow came from my own mother. I was only in 4th grade and it tore me apart. I still hear and feel him breathing down my neck.”
‘My dad was married and had an affair with my mom. I became the product of their affair. On the outside, we looked normal. But behind closed doors, dark secrets hid. My life quickly took a turn.’
‘He crept in my room when my mother was working. My stepdad said she wanted me to do ‘those things’ to make him happy in her absence. I was afraid. I could trust no one.’
“I was told I was ‘Pretty for a big girl.’ Because I was overweight, I thought that would keep me safe. If I stayed fat, no one would want to touch me. My grandparents would ask me questions. Of course I denied it.”
‘I will always have my dad in Heaven. Will you be my father forever?’ My high school sweetheart was shot and killed at a party. I was left a single mom, lost without my best friend.’
“This man stepped up and took care of this amazing little boy when his daddy was taken from this world. Connor asked if he could ask Jonathan to adopt him. ‘Why do you want to do that?,’ I asked. ‘To make it official,’ he replied. ‘I want to surprise him.’”
‘Boys, go to your room. I need to talk to mom.’ I knew the look of anguish, though I’d never seen it on his face. I’ll never forget the phone call that changed his world.’
“My (now) ex-husband took the call. ‘Bam, that was your sister. Your mom found him in the driveway in front of the garage. He had been out messing around in the yard.’”
‘It started out as ‘the talk.’ But it was hands on. I remember feeling dirty and wanting to crawl in a hole and die.’
“Life had become unbearable under the weight of my secret. He told me no man would ever want to marry me because I couldn’t keep the house clean. I knew that wasn’t true, but I did think no man would ever want me. I was tainted.”
‘I got on the bus. 3 boys yelled at me, ‘Hey white boy!’ ‘Mom, I was nervous.’ After all, I was the only white boy on the bus. They asked if I use the N-word. ‘No,’ my Stepdad is black. He’s my family.’
“Austin, my son with autism, asked him, ‘Have you killed anyone in a war?’ I quickly tried to hush him up. He looked at Austin and said, ‘No, but I know bullets can kill.’ Austin looked perplexed. ‘Do you like video games?’ ‘Yes, I love video games.’ Austin smiled from ear to ear.”
‘I recall sitting in the dark on the couch after the worst of it all. I knew I was being hurt. It was the day where from beneath him I screamed, ‘DAD! STOOOOOPPPPP!’’
“He got up immediately with apologies spewing. I was sworn to secrecy in the most manipulative ways.”
‘My oldest son wanted to ask his Dad (as he calls him) to adopt him, and officially take his stepfather’s last name.’
“When the day got here, even I was unaware of what was going on. I was just as shocked as he was.”
‘They refer to themselves as ‘husbands-in-law.’ This picture shows how co-parenting should be done. The man on the right is my dad; the man on the left is my stepdad.’
“When the preacher asked who was giving me away, they both grinned big, pointed at one another and exclaimed, ‘He does!’”
‘I was married to a drug addict, then I married a man who happened to be a recovering addict. I wouldn’t change a thing.’
“My children’s father was set on a path that would lead him to a heroin addiction. The young man I had married, the one that had loved his babies and was so excited to be a dad, was gone.”
