Ashley's Story, Part 2
Most five year olds know their ABC’s and 123’s and love coloring. These activities were foreign concepts to me. I was too busy changing my baby sister's diapers and worrying about where we would get our next meal to learn these things. Without guidance from a healthy adult caregiver, I didn’t get a strong foundation, which is so important for development. At a few months shy of six years old, I arrived to my new parents’ home significantly behind. I entered the first grade without knowing how to appropriately interact with peers or recite the alphabet. I barely passed the first grade and was placed into a full-time special education classroom for the second grade.
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Ashley's Story, Part 1
I was adopted when I was nine years old after spending five years in the Illinois foster care system. My siblings and I were removed from my biological home when I was four years old. As a young child, I was embarrassed and ashamed of this part of my life and kept it a secret for a long time. I remember being in elementary and high school and having to do family tree projects. My stomach would knot up thinking about how to present my family tree without disclosing my background in foster care and then the fact that I was adopted. The stigma that “foster kid” carried was too heavy for my young soul to handle.
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Mrs. Crabtree and the Bridge to Success
All those years ago, as I rested my head to sleep in the backseat of a freezing cold car, I could never have imagined that I would be sitting where I am today. All those years ago- my four year old tummy throbbing from the ache of hunger and my tiny mind struggling to understand why my daddy kept putting bruises on my mommy’s face-I couldn’t even envision this life.
But here it is.
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