This is a picture of me when I was living with my friend and her family.
This is the story about the third and final foster home I was in. To understand this story you have to be taken back to when I was 6 years old. When I was 6 my parents rented an apartment and my father began managing the complex. A short while later a family from Pakistan moved in next door to us. They have a few children and one of the girls was my age we quickly became friends. Her father was always at work and her mother stayed home. Both of my parents worked 2 jobs so many days when I got home from school I would go over to her apartment and stay there until my parents got home. It was not long that I was treated like one of their children. I ate with them and prayed with them. My family did not go to church so I knew nothing about Jesus or even God. So praying was foreign to me but I found a calmness in those moments of prayer. They would even disciple me when the whole group got into trouble. I only went home to sleep. Not saying I was neglected or anything I had everything I needed, my parents had to work very hard to maintain the things we had. So I am sure they did not want to leave me alone but I feel they also knew I was cared for while they were working. When I was 11 our family moved from the complex and I was devastated. It was like I was loosing half of my family. After we moved I would leave school and go to their home. I mean there was never anyone at my home after school anyways. A few times I had to wait hours for my parents to get home I did not have a key so I waited outside. The only thing I did not realize at first was the time it would take me to get there. The first time I walked it and it took me over an hour. After that I learned which bus would take me there and my time was cut in half. When I was removed from my family I still kept in touch with my friend. When I was 17 their father suggested that I come live with them legally. I mean many times when I did not have anywhere to go I would find myself at their door. The only thing was he was scared he would get in trouble if the police found out I was there. I had another home that I stayed at in the north side that I was already told I could not come back because the police knew I was there.
So when he wanted to go legal with my living there we had to make the call to my case worker. You see my case worker knew that when I called him with a place that I wanted to stay at I was more likely to stay so he did everything he could to make the process as simple as possible. I had done this twice before and the last 2 times things did not work out. But not because if me wanting to stay there. It was because they could not pass the home study. I knew this one was different as I knew so much about them and their family. They did not drink, or do things that would prevent them from passing the home study. While they were doing the home study I was allowed to stay with them. My case worker knew that if he moved me I would just run. He allowed me to stay there because he knew that if I chose to be somewhere I would stay there and after all these years of running the state just wanted me to stay somewhere so they can keep tabs on me. They passed the home study and I was able to live with them legally. There was never a doubt in my mind. About a month later they started talking about adopting me. I was thrilled about the idea until they told me why. This all started when the older sister Rosey got married, it was a beautiful wedding and I was happy that she was getting married. At the time I did not understand why she was not so happy. I would find out later that she did not even know the guy she was married to, her father had arranged the marriage. At that time my friend Sabeen told me about the guy she was getting married to in 1 year. Her father arranged their marriages when they were toddlers. And she met him for the first time during her sisters wedding. When I was told that one of the reasons they wanted to adopt me was to arrange a marriage with a cousin I was both shocked and disgusted. I had spent my whole teenage years staying away from men as I felt they wanted only to hurt me and now I am finding out that in order to agree to be adopted I had to give the rest of my life away to some guy that I never met. ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!!!!!
The next month in that house was hell on earth. They locked me in a room and when they were not yelling at me or hitting me they completely ignored me. The evil that came out of the father and mother I have never seen the likes of before. They said if I wanted things to go back to normal I had to agree to the adoption and marriage.
I finally agreed under the condition that I met the guy first, and we went on a proper date. You know movie and a dinner. The idea of a date was unheard of for the father but after much consideration he agreed as long as his oldest son joined us. I agreed and a date was set up for that weekend.
things went back to normal in the house and I was treated well again. We went on the date and I tried a few times to sneak out and leave and my attempts were unsuccessful. I did not get caught trying to leave I tried a few times to go to the bathroom and there was no windows to go out of and the older brother stood outside the door the whole time. So my plan to leave during the date did not work. My only other option was to agree to the adoption and marriage. I knew that if I agreed things would go well at the home during the time it took to get these things done.
It was the next week when my case worker was contacted about the adoption.
Up until now I have told you my story and I have not told you why CPS failed to keep me safe and why this should be included in the many crimes of CPS.
My case worker was unaware of everything that had happened to me during that month and the reasons they wanted to adopt me. Their plan was to marry Sabeen and me at the same time. During the visit with my case worker he was informed of the wish to adopt but nothing more I asked to speak with him alone as I needed to talk to him.
To be honest he was thrilled that I was finally in a home that I was happy with. I told him what the plan was and he said that I was making it up he thought that I was just getting scared to be apart of a family again. He could not understand why they would do that.
About a week later I saw an opportunity to leave and I took it. Since being locked up I was not allowed to be alone without one of the brothers next to me every time I went out of the house. Well this time the youngest brother was with me and I asked if I could go to the store and he agreed. He was meeting a girl that he did not want his father to know about. While he was talking to her I told him that I was going to go to the bathroom. He was so into talking to her he did not notice when I went in the door to the back storage room. I went out of the building through the storage room and ran as fast as I could. I went into another shop and asked to use the phone. I called my case worker and he came to pick me up. You would think that I was smarter than to call my case worker I mean with my history why was I even thinking he would do the right thing and take me as far away from there right? WRONG!!!! He took me straight back to the family I was running from. He said that since an adoption request had been started I needed to stay with them until a judge said otherwise. That night I thought I was going to die. I was burned by the fathers cigarettes, I was punches in my face and I have a scar now on my forehead from where I was cut by a ring the mother was wearing. She put the ring on to punch me to leave this mark. I was beaten most of that night and was locked in the room for over a week with nothing to eat but naan and water. I had no choice but to beg them to stop and agree to marry their cousin.
The date was set to go to the office to sign the papers for the adoption. I have a very strong faith in God at this point in my life and I always felt that if I asked for his hand he would give it to me. I felt his hand that day and I put my life in his hand. On the way to the office we got into a car accident. Nothing too serious but it was enough for me to get out and run. When I tell you I ran and jumped over a bush as if it was not even there I mean it. I was completely focused on getting away. This time I got away and I never called my case worker. Instead I went to another friends house until 2 months before my 18th birthday when I was contacted by my father and he told me that he wanted me to come back home. Him and my step mother were making plans on moving out of Miami and he wanted me to go with them. He agreed not to contact my case worker. So after all these years I finally went back home. We moved up to Lakeland and I lived with them for 2 months before things got bad and I was forced to leave. But that is a story for another day.
This is just the beginning of my story and the information that I have. If you wish to hear more please consider following. And upvoting and resteem this. The more people that know about the ways CPS uses to steal children the less likely they are to get away with it. And one day we will be strong enough to put a stop to their tyranny.
As I fully support the #familyprotection movement 25% of ALL the SBD generated for this post will be transferred to #familyprotection. The other 25% WILL BE USED TO BUY MORE Steem Power. So my voting power will go up. The last 50% will sit in my account until someone needs it, I need it or I will use it to buy even more Steem Power.
**As always Thank you for taking the time to read this post. It means the world to me to finally have a place where I can speak openly and without fear or repercussion.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**