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A Look into the Life of a Foster Kid
A Look into the Life of a Foster Kid
A Look into the Life of a Foster Kid
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A Look into the Life of a Foster Kid

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This is a depiction of the traumatic experiences, dark moments, eye-opening situations, and a tale that relates to a lot of foster kids and foster parents! This is a story that helps you see and understand the background and history of Dejuan D. James and others who have entered the world of the living with new people on a daily basis who are not related to them.

This is based on a true story! However, most names have been changed to hide identities.

Another interesting fact of this book is that it was written entirely from the confines of an iPhone 7 in the Pages application!
LanguageEnglish
PublisheriUniverse
Release dateJul 18, 2019
ISBN9781532066887
A Look into the Life of a Foster Kid
Author

Dejuan D. James

I share with the world my darkest moments as well as my happy moments! I believe this book is sure to entertain the reach of it’s readers minds, as it relates to my life story. I had it hard as I searched for love and support throughout my entire experience in foster care. And I Nearly Found it.!

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    A Look into the Life of a Foster Kid - Dejuan D. James

    Copyright © 2019 Dejuan D. James.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

    iUniverse

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    Bloomington, IN 47403

    www.iuniverse.com

    1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

    Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

    Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

    Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

    ISBN: 978-1-5320-6687-0 (sc)

    ISBN: 978-1-5320-6688-7 (e)

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2019901603

    iUniverse rev. date: 07/18/2019

    My Journey from Home to Foster Care into Adulthood

    A depiction of the traumatic experiences, dark moments, eye opening situations and a tail that relates to a lot of foster kids and foster parents! A story that helps you see and understand the background and history of Dejuan D. James Sr., and others who have entered the world of living with new people on a daily basis that are not related to them.

    Based on a true story! However most names have been changed to hide identities.

    Another interesting fact of this book, is it was written entirely from the confines of an IPhone 7 in the Pages application!

    CONTENTS

    Chapter 1     The Beginning For D. D. James

    Chapter 2     What’s to Come For D. D. James

    Chapter 3     Foster Care for Dejuan and Prince

    Chapter 4     Leaving Ms. Thomas Home

    Chapter 5     The First summer as a Foster Kid

    Chapter 6     Camp at The YMCA for the Summer

    Chapter 7     The Start of Middle School

    Chapter 8     Our Next Foster Home Together

    Chapter 9     The Fight Nights at Valetha Davis’s Home

    Chapter 10   The Rest Of the Stay at Booba’s

    Chapter 11   The Split Up

    Chapter 12   New Beginnings all By Myself

    Chapter 13   The Continuation of my Stay at Mr. Gaillard’s

    Chapter 14   From Mr. Gaillard’s Back to St. Benson

    Chapter 15   The Return to a Home

    Chapter 16   Back Home With Michelle and Michael

    Chapter 17   Some Real Intimate Moments

    Chapter 18   My Continued Stay with Bass’s

    Chapter 19   The New Punishment Agreement

    Chapter 20   The Conclusion of My Stay with The Bass’s

    Chapter 21   Pat’s House With The Issues

    Chapter 22   My Move Out of Pat’s Home

    Chapter 23   The end of My Short Stay With Denise

    Chapter 24   The Evans Residence

    Chapter 25   My Continued Stay at The Evans Home

    Chapter 26   The Conclusion of My Stay With the Evans

    Chapter 27   The Move Back with Family

    Chapter 28   The First Roger tmas at Home With Blood Family

    Chapter 29   The Start of My Future As I Thought it Would Be

    Chapter 30   How Living in Chicago, Illinois is Challenging

    Chapter 31   The Summer of 2009 and Beyond

    CHAPTER ONE

    The Beginning For D. D. James

    M Y FIRST BREATH OF LIFE STARTS ON FRIDAY FEBRUARY 8, 1991; I don’t remember the time but I believe it was the morning I was born at St. HansonHospital in a city that would later be known to the world as ChiRaq. I was born to a mother who had already gave birth to 6 children before me, so yes that makes me number seven of eight children that would carry the James name on from a woman who would be hated by many of them. Now I can’t tell you much about the first few years of life, but I can tell you from the stories that were told to me; I was the one nephew kidnapped by a few of my aunts. One of which was my Auntie Ashia, she hadn’t given birth to her first of six kids as of yet. So as you can imagine she was in love with one of her first nephews to be born that year, which possibly could’ve caused her some baby fever. I don’t know that to be the tHeniretta just an assumption of mine. However from what my mother told me she barely had me because like I mentioned my aunts were there to take me home with them more nights then none. I think maybe that’s why I love to travel because I was always on the move with somebody. Life for her as my mothers seventh child was probably hell for her seeing as I was never at home, separation anxiety is the best way to explain it for her. She told me she felt like she never seen her baby. I hate to think about it sometimes now days because it just adds to the time I feel was stolen from me and Georgia. I forgot to tell you all her name which I think now is a good time to tell you all my best friend’s name. JenniferAnn James who was always known to me as Momma and that name will forever live on in me. Enough of that for now, let me tell you a lot of what I do remember as those years to come after 1991 which was one of the best years of my life, a little humor. I feel like I was blessed because I was born the eight day of the month, which would not mean much to most but it certainly meant a lot in my household back then. I wasn’t born with a sliver spoon in my mouth so maybe that shedded a little light for you. But if it didn’t let me build the story for y’all! The first of the month was payday for my mother, I know that’s putting her business out there but this is a tell all so I gotta tell it the way it was. Besides if you know my mother she wasn’t one who was to private or at least embarrassed about anything that she went through until the later years in her life. I remember that my birthdays were one of the biggest days for my mother in the years to come as was all of her kids birthdays. But one thing I can tell you is that my birthday parties were made special for me each year. One would ask how was that if she only had one check a month to do it on, and I would add that I didn’t even know we were that broke that’s just how special and how far out she would go. I remember one year it had to be around my third or fourth birthday she had given me a party at MichaelE Cheese and what I remember about that; was Michaelie himself would come out and greet all of the kids and it was even more special for me since it was my birthday. It was so special to the point of ruining my birthday, yep I stayed under the table the whole time after seeing him come out the very first time since we had made our arrival. From what I can remember I barely wanted to come out from under the table for everybody to sing happy birthday to me. I believe it was my auntie Francis who convinced me to come out, those were the days.

    My life was not a walk in the park especially no where near that for me growing up on the low end of the South side of Chicago the first few years of my life. But I remember the projects almost like yesterday, I said almost because I don’t remember all of it. But I recall a day that I called myself being grown and getting on the elevator to take myself down to my grandmothers apartment. Well to say the least it was a scary moment in my life, because the projects had something like 60 floors maybe more or maybe less but I’m trying to get you to understand that it was scary because which button would I push to get to her floor? The million dollar question to say the least! My grandmother whose name was also JenniferJames was my next favorite in my earlier years of life. Now I know it is uncommon and maybe it is, but I never met a mother and daughter with the same name one day of my life besides these two. That was one of the unique things about those two special women in my life back then. The only difference between them was the middle names, which my grandmother was Willie and my mother was Ann. My grandmother would tell me about how when we stayed with her, that I would always get away from my moma to run into her room and turn on her radio and start twisting yo little butt around dancing to the music. I wish I could remember that but I think I was younger then, so it’s not something I really can recall in my memories. I do though recall the times of how my grandmother would get after me and my brother Prince for playing around her Cabinets which held her special glass pieces. Prince is my younger brother the one who came after me, moma’s little mistake down by the lake. Laugh out Loud! He was the eighth child and the last one my mother would give birth to. I think Prince was old enough to be walking but he didn’t come with me that day when I went looking for my grandmothers apartment. I do remember some of the arguments between my grandma and my moma in the earlier years of life for, I mean they were so intense that you would think somebody was going to die. Just some of the darker moments back then, but it was real to say the least. Maybe that’s why my mother had gotten her own apartment!

    The fighting that went on in my family was realer then ever and to tell you the tHeniretta it’s almost still the same til this day. They say that some are so much alike that they can’t stand each other and that seems to be the tHeniretta for my mother and my grandmother. They use to fight so much and so often that I would be scared to the point of hating to have them both in the same room. I remember one fight between them it was later on down the line but I think it’s a good time to share it. It was a few years down the line after we had moved to Milwaukee, WI. They were fighting because of me and something I had done. My grandmother took a trip to Chicago as she would do often after we had moved to Milwaukee. But this trip I remember so well cause it caused one of the biggest fights between them because I had stole my grandmothers money and went what I called grocery shopping. Maybe you remember Home Alone when little Kevin was left behind by his family. And he went grocery shopping and the woman questioned him about being there alone. Well that was me I went to the grocery store with my grandmothers money and shopped for the house because it was nothing in the house to eat, so I stole the money and went to the store I’m not proud of that but that was me being grown again. Sentry was the stores name on Locust and Oakland in Milwaukee that was some years ago. My Milwaukee people know about that store! Shout out to all the Milwaukee people I met in this life thus far. Anyhow my grandma had came home a few days later and realized her money was missing which was obviously recognized after looking where you put your things and come back to not find them there. Well to say the least this wasn’t the first time I had stole her money!!! So in other words she went right to me for questioning, she called me down stairs and for all of my family that may read this and remember the house on 19th street; that’s where it went down. To the other readers it’s once again tell all so here I am telling you all the tea. She had called me downstairs into her room and started her questioning! Well I acted like I didn’t know what she was talking about and that made her angry so as she eased towards me the licks were just wining up in her hands. Anybody that knows my grandmother knows she has some big hands and let me tell you she was so mad that I felt those licks before she even laid a hand on me. Whoa just thinking about it brought back so many memories. Well as you can probably imagine she had hit me several times I ran upstairs to my moma room with a busted nose and a busted lip. My moms quickly became angry and took off down the stairs and you can hear them arguing through the floors. My moma saying why you hit my son like that and my grandma screaming he shouldn’t have stole my damn money. I think the fighting had started me and Prince ran down stairs and my auntie Pariswas by that time between the two it got so bad my grandma had grabbed a knife from the kitchen which didn’t mean anything to my moma she kept charging after my grandma. Well at this point my granny was on the front porch holding the door so my moma couldn’t get to her screaming to ParisCall the police call the police! Man I remember the day that so well I also remember how bad I had felt. Going back to that day just stirs up in me that guilty bad feeling all over again. Can you imagine being the reason why yo moma and grandma was fighting so bad. All because I had did what I knew was wrong to do!

    That really brought things home for me to stop stealing Gosh I hate that I did that. Well back tracking to a Chicago moment I remember from the projects; my mother had two men fighting over her. Yeah crazy I know but I believe one of the men was Jamie’s daddy Tony! I think he was there when the other man had stopped by and you can imagine how that went down, they had fought all the way down the hallway until my moma was able to get Tony back to the apartment. Boy that night was scary for so many reasons, but one was them fighting so hard and bad that I thought my moms was goin to get hurt trying to break it up. She didn’t though! Maybe that’s where I got my fighting instinct from coupled with the fact that Prince and I always use to fight also I witnessed next to a million fights in that era of my life. I remember a lady named Stella who house we frequently would visit at times in Chicago, I don’t recall where she lived exactly but I do know it wasn’t the projects. At her house was where my Godmother Judy lived and maybe it was the other way around maybe after thinking about it. It was probably Judy house and Stella stayed there however it went, I just remember going over there and they would be playing cards and drinking. Well a few fights took place over there as well anybody from Chicago can really tell you that those card games would break a family up quicker then a cheating spouse! You should also know that drinking and playing cards really don’t go so well with anybody. But I can say it was fun visiting them every now and again and I wish I had contact with those women to this day maybe I can get some questions answered. That was just a few stories this book goes far and deeper if you can read on to the coming chapters I really encourage you to.

    CHAPTER TWO

    What’s to Come For D. D. James

    W HAT’S TO COME? IS A GOOD WAY TO START THIS CHAPTER, because if you thought chapter one was the last of the drama or the situations that would happen in my life you were sadly mistaken! I don’t know where to start though. Let me back up a bit for you the reader and give a little background about the rest of the eight. So you didn’t hear about them except that a few of them had some hatred and to add some anger for our mother JenniferAnn as some people called her. Let me begin by telling you this about the other six of the eight, they were all taken away long before me and Prince had come along not many years but the age gap stretched between me and the sixth child Roger by 7 years. He was the youngest before I came and he is one of the brothers that I got along with better then any of them. However getting back to them being taken away though! They were taken away due to the fact that my mother couldn’t care for them like she would have wanted to. I had heard it was because John and Johnathan went begging for food at a neighbors house which is how they would be taken one morning when that neighbor called the police and from there DCFS in Chicago would be contacted to remove them from my mothers custody. Let me give some names before I go any further though! So Kevin is the oldest and Roger as I fore stated was the youngest before me and Jamie, the next oldest was my sister Bianca who was the only girl my mother had then you have John & Johnathan if you didn’t catch it they are twins but can be told apart now days but back then you couldn’t, then there was Alexis and Roger . Now theses six were separated by twos after being removed from my mothers custody, it went like Roger and Alexis was paired then John and Donald, then the two oldest Kevin and Bianca . Kevin mentioned to me that at some point he was able to go back home which none of us actually got to do. But he did cause he kept running away from his foster homes, that sounds like something we could’ve all done but I guess we didn’t have that much sense or just were to scared to I don’t know. But I do know we all were in the system at one point the foster care system that is.

    I do recall going to visit some of them with my mother though when they had gotten older at the facility that DCFS had for supervised visits for my mother and other parents who had lost their children. I mentioned in chapter one that I felt like me and my mother had some time stolen but now that I recall we didn’t get taken from her and we probably very well could have since the other six did. I think it was in Gods plans to leave us with her at least. I don’t know but I do thank him if that’s how he planned it! I listen to my brother Roger one day and he mentioned how his life was full of torment as he grew older in foster care and one particular event that he had to happen with my sister. She I guess tried to kill him at one point and also threw a cat on him, so til this day he is scared of cats! I told you it was more drama to come! Anyhow we all were traumatized by these events of life and I’m willing to bet that’s why some of them harbor some type of hatred in their hearts towards our mother that’s just me again making an assumption coupled with a few testimonies. I suppose I told you the story of the first six being separated from my mother, I can now tell you how the last two were separated.

    So it all began for Prince and I when another time my mother and grandmother got into it yet again, although this is not the direct reason, it is how it led up to why we were taken away. Now I should mention that we were in Milwaukee, WI at this point, and fast forward a bit to 10 and 11 for Prince and myself. I was eleven going on twelve and Prince was ten going on eleven. My mother had gotten a place but somehow we ended up living with my Grandmother again right before we had moved into a place that a lady named Heniretta Carrie was renting, she was a member at my grandmother’s church. Now this Church was one that our family had became members of right when everybody like my mother, my grandmother, my uncle Main (Willie Earl), and my aunt Paris Migrated from Chicago to Milwaukee back when I was five or six years of age. We didn’t stay for long in one or the other city, it was constant moving between the two cities for me, my brother Jamie, and my mother. But anyways, we had moved into Heniretta ’s house and stayed for almost a year. My sister Bianca had even came and stayed for a while up until her and my mother couldn’t see eye to eye, which was the case often. Then she had left and went to stay with my grandmother. We had stayed there for a while after her leaving, which wasn’t bad for a place to live. I mean we never went hungry staying above her! If we were ever without food, she would cook and send food upstairs by my mother. She was very kind to us to say the least. I remember one incident that caused one of her sisters (Heniretta) to threaten my mother with physical harm. I guess my mother just held her tongue and gave her a pass that day, which my mother wasn’t one to do that for anybody if you recall the fights with her and my grandmother. It was for the greater good though we definitely needed a place to stay. So moving forward a bit it came to an unexpected end abruptly when we had gotten out of school one day my mother got us from the bus stop and there we go again. On the road again! We went back to Chicago this was at winter break in my fifth grade year. We came back the day before school was set to start back. To Milwaukee that is! I believe it was because of a money issue between my mother and my auntie Ashia ! However we stayed at The Ramada Hotel right across from the greyhound station, I remember because I had stayed up all that night watching the buses coming and going. So the next morning I remember getting up and my mother dropping me and Prince at our two different schools. When we left Milwaukee and moved back to Chicago the first time around after moving to Milwaukee when we were five and six. We ended up in two different schools, I started at a Park in Milwaukee and Prince followed the year after in kindergarten like I did when we first arrived in Milwaukee. However we left Milwaukee and back to Chicago where it was another school that we attended together. Hope I didn’t lose you just trying to bring you up to speed on how my mom had to drop us at two different schools in Milwaukee the morning in question. So we got up and got dressed and like I said before she dropped us off at our different schools Prince was first seeing that his school was closer to the Hotel on the north side. School as usual after winter break everybody talking about what they had gotten for Roger tmas the prior year. I don’t recall getting anything but maybe some long Johns and school supplies my grandmother would give majority of her grandkids for Roger tmas. That was funny to me because only my family would understand how that happened. However I was at school now and tired as ever because of the night before staying up watching those buses. Sleeping in class every subject I took a brief nap math, English etc. I maybe even slept through lunch which wasn’t my usual cause we always played soccer or even football it just depends on what the team captains wanted to play that day. However almost to the end of the day I was called down to the office and so I went, when I arrived I was approached my Ms. Swick and another woman I had never met. She was an Asian from child protective services of the Milwaukee welfare agency and she was there to pick me up to take me to a shelter for young youth. I forgot to mention Prince was with her because she had picked him up first. Well me being as tired as I was I just went because the plan had a bed in it, I probably would’ve caused some problems if I had of been in my right mind and rested up. Now we are there at the shelter and they are asking us question about our background and what our interests were. Also known as intake! The next part of the intake was us having to shower and turn over the clothes that we had come in with to be washed. I must share this part because it’ll probably help you to understand just how tired I was. Here I am showering and somehow I ended up sleeping on the floor of the shower because I saw a flat surface that resembled a bed in that moment. However the staff came in heavy and with a force because I was knocked out in a deep sleep and it must’ve looked as if I was dead. They came in screaming loud and aggressively my name until I came to and woke up. Now I remember a girl and I don’t remember her name standing behind the staff looking at me naked in the shower sleep on the floor. Well long story short she became my girlfriend now if asked, I really don’t remember her name but I knew she was what I liked light skin and slim. Hints I married the woman of my dreams light skinned and slim but we are not there just yet. However so now we are here at what seemed to be our new home, and it was not bad but it wasn’t with our mother like we always were up until that day we wasn’t. After I had napped and got some rest I remember that evening us getting up for dinner and all I could think about is my mother being at the bus stop waiting for us to come. That was around five in the evening to be exact, that’s when they served dinner at St. Bensonwhich is the name of the shelter for children. Anyhow the girl I was telling you about earlier started flirting with me at the table and that’s where it started for us. I was full blast ahead after her. Maybe she’ll read this and we all can figure out her name. Now we hadn’t started dating just yet or as the old folk would say coating each other just yet. But as time went on I made a move a day after a trip that we went on to the movies, that was something that we all earned if we kept up our jobs as far as keeping the unit clean. I remember on the van ride back Scrub by TLC was playing on the radio and she was singing it to me. Calling me a scrub just made me feel insulted so I got defensive. Now we were arguing like a married couple the rest of the ride home ribbing and talking smack back and forth but that soon stopped when we arrived back at the unit. The next day we was back on our flirting phase she was the second girlfriend I had in my life. We finally got together and that didn’t last long because her and her two brothers ended up going back home to their moms. It hurt me because I felt she was the one; isn’t that how every time you date somebody new you start thinking? That gave me hope though that this too would be me and my brother Prince story as well, reunited back with our mother; not at all. In fact we stayed there the rest of the month of January into February a week had went by into February and it was either I move to another unit of St. Bensonbecause I was turning 12 and that meant I had to go with the youth unit 12 and over. Prince and I would be separated for the first time ever!?!

    CHAPTER THREE

    Foster Care for Dejuan and Prince

    T HE WEEK INTO FEBRUARY THAT I HAD FORE MENTIONED was two days before my birthday on the eighth! Which happened to be a Thursday, I was scared out of my mined because I had never lived without my mother now let alone my brother Jamie! I was that day afraid to even live life anymore. That day we had went to school on the vans as we usually did from St. Charles, I went with a chip on my shoulder though and it was noticeable for all of my teachers because I wasn’t the bubbly energetic Dejuan that they were use to! I mean I was being mean and unusual behavior had taken its place in my life that day. I cursed one of my favorite teachers Ms. Bethwick and even tried going toe to toe with my home room teacher Mr. Wagner and that was totally not me. They all knew it! And so only Mrs. Bethwick who was really bothered by my unusual behavior came and got me from math class and sat down with me to find out what was really going on with me! She had with her some cinnamon crackers and apple juice. After getting passed my stubbornness, she asked me saying Dejuan what’s the problem, why are you acting out all of sudden? I sat for a minute thinking about what I would tell her because I really didn’t want to open up and share with her the real reason for my behavior. But I finally opened up and told her that I was going to be turning twelve and that meant since our caseworker at the time hadn’t found us a foster home, I would be moving into another unit away from my brother. She became heart broken as she normally would after hearing some more news about my living situation at home. So she sat and talked with me a little while longer, really just consoling me into believing that everything was going to be alright and that Prince and I would still see each other everyday. Boy do I really thank her for helping me to realize it wasn’t the end of the world and that it was going to be okay! That evening when we had arrived back to St. Charles, I was so calmed that when the staff called me into the office to share with us the news that I thought was going to be bad news. They actually surprised me with some better news that we were going to a foster home together tomorrow Friday February 7 th the day before my birthday. Oh how I was overjoyed with hearing that, I was on my best behavior from that point on. I remember getting to school that morning all ready to learn as you would remember the day before started off with a disrespectful attitude. I couldn’t wait to tell Mrs. Bethwick the good news! The only problem with that was she didn’t show up that day, she was sick and couldn’t come to school. It hurt me that I couldn’t tell her first seeing as she was the only one who I believed at that moment really cared. I was wrong about that because Mr. Wagner asked me what was I so excited to tell her? So I started filling him in on the talk that we me and Mrs. Bethwick had the day before and to my surprise he knew everything and so I only had the good news to tell him. And he was like see all of that crap you did yesterday was for no reason and it was. Because I wasn’t going to be separated from my brother at all. So the day went on with me feeling really good and I had an early dismissal from school that day to go back to the unit to get my things together to go to our new home. We got back to the unit me and Prince and there waiting for us was our caseworker Gale. Gale was the sweetest craziest woman you would ever want to meet, I mean she had a side that I didn’t expect from her in her. She greeted us when we walked in saying hello Dejuan and Prince it is so nice to finally meet you all! We said hi and from there she explained that she had read about us and our story and that she was heartbroken when she got the case because she hated seeing children being removed from their homes. She could’ve fooled me seeing as she was a caseworker is what I first thought. However she really did feel that way as time went on and I got to know her a little better. We gathered our things and left St. Bensongoing to our new home! On the way there I sat up front and Prince in the back Gale started telling us about our new foster home and what we were to expect. She said the lady is slightly older and was normally called grandma by most of her foster children and that she had a boy already living with her who was also a foster kid. She also mentioned that most of the kids she placed with her didn’t stay long and that was a red flag for me and led me into questions. Why, what was the problem, was it because of her or them? These were the questions that flew from my mouth to her ears! And she just calmly said it wasn’t a good fit for neither the kids or Ms. Thomas . And I became calm in my conversation at this point! I figured in my mind that this would not be the case for us Prince and I. I remember arriving and the lady was so inviting to us, she took us up to our room and let us get settled in while she went to get a briefing from our case manger. I recall crying when she walked out and the reason I was crying was because it was a home but it wasn’t home like we remembered it with our Moma! I wished my mother could’ve came to stay with us there like when we stayed with Heniretta, but this wasn’t the same by no means. Gale was all done briefing Ms. Thomas at this point when she yelled upstairs that she was going to be leaving. We rain downstairs to tell her goodbye and she noticed my eyes were red from crying and she just hugged me and said it’s gone be alright I promise. And that gave me a little reassurance that things weren’t so bad. She had also wished me an early happy birthday. Which in itself gave me a better feeling, and it excited me that my birthday was coming the next day. She left and Ms. Thomas told us to come in the kitchen she wanted to share with us her house rules, do’s and don’ts. While she was explaining to us everything she also asked if we were hungry, we replied yes. And she said yes what? Waiting for us to add the ma’am to it! And when we didn’t, not knowing to say anything like that she said Yes Ma’am! And we repeated after her much to her liking, she started making us sandwiches while she continued her house rules speech. She mentioned that we could call her grandma like we were fore warned about on the way to her house and we agreed to call her that. By the time she had finished with us Emanuel was knocking at the door. That was her other foster kid that we learned about earlier that day.

    Emanuel came in and spoke to us and we all went up stairs to our shared room. There was a bunkbed and a twin bed in the room with one dresser and a closet and that’s what all three of us had to share. He wasn’t to happy with Ms. Thomas from what I could tell from his conversation about her. Emanuel said she didn’t give him money for certain things like field trips, trips to the store or just even pocket change. He also had mentioned he was waiting for his caseworker to find him a new place to go. Whoa so it wasn’t a kid friendly place after all! You would think most of that was just lies and he was just wanting to go somewhere else, but I’m here to tell you it wasn’t. He was an angry kid too, and I say too because his anger matched mine one day when him and Grandma had it out. I don’t exactly recall what happened to set him off but I do recall he had called her every name but a child of God! I mean he told her she was a stupid old lady and that he hated her and that he wish she would die. Very extreme to me and I bet you think so too. She just said I can’t wait til you leave sucker, I’m calling yo worker today! It was the morning and I couldn’t believe all of this was going on this early around 6:30 or 7 am in the morning. Gosh that was just one episode as it came closer to the time

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