It was hard for me. It was hard for everyone my sister, my brother, my dad, aunts, uncles, my grandma, and even my mom. I know it was hard for her even if a good part of Nadya, Marty and my childhood was messed because of her. She was young and didn’t know what to do so she took the easy way out.

New Years Eve, I was two when my mom and dad split up. My mom left my dad and took us with her. After that everything went downhill we barley saw my mom never saw my dad. Marty, Nadya, and I were being bounced around from family members to family members. Soon my dad tried to get custody and since no one knew where my mom was he got it. I was five at the time my sister was 3. Since my brother isn’t my dad’s son he stayed with my grandma. I love her so much she was there when no one was for us.

My dad took us from my mom’s side of the family for a while. I was suffering. My five-year-old self was missing my mom. I would cry every night for her to come back. Nadia didn’t know any better but when she saw me cry she would too.

Days, Months, and soon two years went by we didn’t see our mom. Then one day my dad got a call. It was she. She wanted to see us so she told my dad to meet her at the mall. We got there and HOURS went by. We thought she wasn’t going to come but then I saw her coming down the escalators with my brother. I legitimately sprinted as fast as I could to her. I was already in tears. She didn’t look very healthy but I tried to not think about it wit that little time we had with her and Marty. Then we said our goodbyes she promised she would keep in touch more often.

It never happened. She never called, never texted never nothing. By then I gave up on thinking’s she was going to be part of our lives. Eight months past and to be honest I was sad but even more angry. One night went to a quince and my grandma (my moms mom) was there she said she had a surprise for us so we went out back to a truck. My mom was in there. Looking as weak as I ever seen her. She had bags under her eyes, her hair was standing up like Queen Elizabeth’s crown and she was as skinny as a stick. I was eight so I knew what was happening.
The same things happened she said she would for sure keep in touch, but of course she didn’t. I wasn’t accepting her to either, I saw it coming. But she did come back six months later. At that time my brother was in foster care and my little brothers and sisters were living with their grandparents. We started to visit with my mom because we knew where she lived she lived with her boyfriend Jeremy. As much as I loved him he was like a dad to me he wasn’t in the best place in his life.

Soon we started to go to Grimes schools, which is where my mom lived. Every time we would come home my mom was either asleep or not there. She would come home late at night or early in the morning. Her and Jeremy were having problems as in lots of fighting which meant Marty took me and Nadya out for walks and stuff. Malachi and Amara were like newborn kids and really weren’t living with us they lived in Johnston with their grandparents. We were now with my mom most the time and went to my dads on the weekends. Marty was finally out of foster care they believed my mom was steady enough to take care of him but with the help of my grandma.

In 3rd grade we moved from Grimes and Nadya and I went to go live with my dad and his girlfriend again. After that my mom left the state. She went to California just like that. Eventually she came back. She got help and got better little by little. We now visit her six times a month. She is completely better and has a job. Of corse she’s not the best mom but I know she won’t go back to that ugly state.

Through all that I always had one thing. My sister we had to go through all of it with each other my brother to but he kind of had it worse than us being in foster care for two years and not having his dad at all was pretty tough for him which is probably why he is a “troubled teen” he has been court ordered to be living in a shelter but he is doing better. After all that I am stronger. I believe that your past makes you who you are in the future.