Jenitha Strickland

The Life Of Being In Foster Care

I first became a foster child when I was 10 years old. At the time, my mother was battling a drug addiction and was in an abusive marriage. Due to my mother’s addiction and her place of employment at that time, she was rarely home. My older sister who is four years older than me took care of me for quite some time when our mother wasn’t home. Although my mother tried to get away from her abusive husband, he would unfortunately stalk us and buy us things for us to move back. One of the reasons DCS got involved was because I drew a picture in class of what I saw my mother’s abusive husband do to my sister and my mother. I was never the abused one, just the one running and calling the police to save them. I drew the picture and laid it to where I knew my teacher would see it and then went off to recess. When I came back, my picture was gone so I knew he had picked it up and then hoped for change. I only did this because after calling the police countless times, my mother would lie and say that nothing was wrong and they would leave just for it to happen again. Although it broke me to watch my mother pack our belongings and be driven away to a foster home, I just wanted to feel safe.