At the age of five, my older sister and I were placed in foster care. My mother was addicted to drugs, and I didn’t even know my father. My sister and I were often left home alone or dropped off at strangers’ houses for a couple of days at a time.
When home with our mom, sometimes other people stayed with us who weren’t nice and treated us badly. The social worker who took us away said our mother wasn’t able to keep us safe. We moved into a foster home, but it was rough. I thought the family was okay, but I guess my sister didn’t. She argued with them all the time, had tantrums, and got really bossy with me. She hit me a couple of times. Now I know that she was just trying to act like my mom. The social worker moved her to another home. I didn’t see her often anymore, usually at court or some visits with our mom. I got scared that I wouldn’t ever live with her again, especially once I found out that we wouldn’t be returning home to our mother and those visits stopped. Then I started having problems. I couldn’t get along with my teachers or friends at school, and I started arguing with my foster parents. I was angry that they gave my sister away. So then they wanted me to move away, too.
I was placed in a new foster home. I acted bad a lot at first, but this foster mother took me to visit my sister at her foster home. My sister was doing a lot better, and I eventually started doing better. My sister got adopted by her foster family, and although I was so happy for her because she really liked them, I was really worried that they would stop letting us visit. But it didn’t turn out that way at all! They asked if they could adopt me, too! Though I was sad to leave my foster mother, I was super excited to live with my sister again, after about two years apart! I moved in with them and, even though we’ve had some ups and downs, they are now my parents and my forever family. And they still let me see my former foster mother! I still miss my birth mother, but things turned out pretty well for me.