When I was a little girl my parents got a divorce. I was two and my younger brother was only a year old. My little brother and I lived with my mom and my grandparents for the first six years of my life. My grandparents took great care of us and my mom was absolutely amazing.
My brother and I would visit my dad every other weekend. He quickly remarried and we fell in love with our new stepmom. It was like a party every weekend we went to my dad’s. They would take us camping, fishing, swimming, and we cooked out all of the time. It was a blast!
My mom later got remarried and we moved out of my grandparent’s house and in with my new stepdad. I loved having two families. My mom and stepdad had a baby so I now had two brothers. A few years later my dad and stepmom had a baby girl. I had two brothers, one sister, two moms and two dads. Everything was perfect, or so I thought.
After my little sister was born our weekend trips to my dad’s started getting boring. My dad was always working in the garage and my stepmom was very busy taking care of the baby. I was only 10 years old but I could see a big change in my dad and stepmom.
A few years went by and our every other weekend trips turned into once a month visits. There were no camping trips and no cook outs. I couldn’t believe what had happened to my fun happy family. My step mom completely let herself go. She was depressed because my dad was never around and when he was all they did was fight. When I say fight I mean she would have black eyes and bruises. I tried to hide the fact that I knew my dad was beating her. She would make up crazy stories about how she got her bruises and I knew the truth.
My dad turned into a man I didn’t even know. He was so angry and distant. Even his looks changed. He aged really fast and didn’t care about anything. It was like day and night. The worst party about the whole situation was my little sister was stuck in the middle of that mess. She was such a happy little girl. I felt so bad because I didn’t have to deal with that live everyday like she did. I actually got to go home to a normal family. I just wanted to take her home with my. I wanted to yell at my dad and stepmom and tell them how selfish they were being and they needed to grow up. It wasn’t fair! A four year old girl didn’t deserve that.
I began dreading the yearly visits to my dad’s house. I was growing up and I was starting to see what was going on. My mom told me things about my dad that brought me to tears. They were things I needed to hear. I was always coming up with excuses for his actions. But there was no excuse for the truth. My dad had begun using drugs. He was abusing my stepmom and she was extremely depressed. She became addicted to pain killers and the home was a wreck.
The fighting got worse and soon the law got involved. I will never forget the phone call I received saying my sister had been taken away. Child services took her to a foster home after a knock down drag out in my dad’s front yard. The cops found drugs all over his house and my stepmom lying on porch crying, and there sat my poor little sister. I didn’t know if or when I was going to see her again.
A few months went by and my dad and stepmothers court date had arrived. The judge was going to decide what was going to happened to my little sister. I didn’t care about what happened to my dad and his wife, but there was no way I was going to let strangers take my sister.
I was so nervous walking into the court room that day with my mom and brother. The look on my dad’s face is a look I will always see in my head. We were there to fight for my little sister and I think that’s when he actually realized what he was putting our family through. No one in the court room expected us to walk through those doors. I told the judge how much I loved my sister and he it wasn’t fair that my brother, my sister and I were being punished for what my dad and stepmom had done.
At the end of the day the judge pulled my mom aside. He told her that my brother and I being there mad a huge difference in his decision. My sister was sent to live with a family member so we could still have her in our life. I don’t know where she would be now if I hadn’t went to court to fight for her that day. I will never regret that decision. I love my sister very much and even though I don’t see her very much she is very important to me. She is only ten years old and she has been through more in those short years than most people go through their entire lives.
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