I was not there when my children were born. I was 17 years old. It was the summer before my senior year of high school and I was not there. I was in New York, so many miles away from the Florida city they were born in. See, my children were born to another woman on August 13, 2004. I can’t even tell you what I was doing the day they were born. Being that it was summer, I was likely at work. I worked as a cashier and front-end manager at a grocery store in town. I didn’t even know I had just become a mother.
Before We Became an Us
My children were born into a very different family. They had young mother and father who had grown up in foster care themselves; they met in a group home and had one child before they had the twins and two after. We never knew them.
I was not there when my children were in the NICU after their birth, having low birth weights, breathing problems and a lack of prenatal care as well as exposure to drugs, alcohol and violence.
I was not there when Malikai had hypospadias surgery.
I was not there when they finally went to the first place they called home.
I was not there through any of the first time DCF came to protect them from their birth parents due to extreme levels of neglect, and abuse leading to a diagnosis of failure to thrive.
I was not there when the birth parents convinced the courts they would be able to care for these little boys, and the court sent them home.
I was not there when DCF came again to take them away for their protection.
When We Came Along
We did start to surface in 2015 when I saw a picture of them on the Heart Gallery. When I called the case worker to ask about them I was told “they aren’t going anywhere” and not to worry about taking our time with our license classes. I began to wonder what their life was like. Who were these little boys who had no mommy? How long had they been alone in this world? Where were they? Who tucked them into bed at night? Did anyone? Did they have someone they loved? I could not know anything about these little boys. Not now at least. And then we began our journey. Join us, it’s a bumpy road but a great adventure.