At some point, Trent and I went to live with our grandmother (our mom's mom) in Melbourne on the opposite coast of Florida. Our dad was out of the picture at this point, and our mom was working to pull together the shambles of our family.
During this time, my mom met Richie, who eventually became her longest-lasting relationship. Richie was similar to my biological father in that he was often in trouble with the law and dragged my mom into it. He struggled with alcohol and drug abuse and overdosed on multiple occasions.
My mom became pregnant with my younger half-brother in 2006. Even while living with our grandmother, Trent and I still visited our mother on occasion. We were able to be there right after our younger brother Zachary was born in January of 2007. That was the last time I saw my mom before the adoption happened.
My grandma has a much younger brother, Donald. He is over ten years younger than her and is married, and has two kids. Donald and his wife Angel lived in Orlando, a couple of hours from both Clearwater and Melbourne. They were involved in church and homeschool groups and were a pretty stable family compared to what I had previously experienced.
While living at Grandma Wanda's, we made visits to a lot of family members. That included Don and Angel. We started staying a couple of weeks at a time, and eventually, we never left.
Don and Angel adopted Trent and me into their family in the summer of 2007. I didn't know the implications or circumstances surrounding the event, but I learned more about it later.
My mom did not want the adoption to happen. She had just gotten housing and rooms ready for Trent and me to move back into up in North Carolina. But Grandma Wanda convinced Nicole that she was unfit and that it would be unfair to me and Trent to go back to her. She claimed that Don and Angel could provide way more benefits and stability and opportunities than our mom ever could.
Feeling manipulated and guilted into it, our mom signed the adoption papers. However, she did refuse to sign them until it was ensured that the adoption was an open adoption so that Trent and me were not going to be shut off from her.
And so it happened. All was according to plan, and things were good. Until they weren't.
