The Christmas of 1998 found me and my siblings living at the Children's Cottage in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was a lovely home and my parents were lucky enough to be able to come to the Children's Cottage to help look after us and spend time with us. We stayed there for about 6 months before the government put me and my siblings in our first Foster Home in Midnapore, Alberta, Canada which is now part of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We only lived at that foster home for 6 months because they foster parents would expect us to eat on the floor and they also expected two of my siblings to sleep without a blanket on the floor with the window open in the middle of winter. Then they sent us all back to the Children's Cottage.
In the summer of 1999 we were all moved out to a foster home in Redwood Meadows, Alberta, Canada. Gord and Ginger had two kids of their own in their teens, Kendra and Joel (I was not able to pronounce Joel's name correctly at 4 years old so I used to call him Joelie) when we moved in. I remember Gord and Ginger had me and my siblings all sleep on a Four Poster King Size bed which now thinking back I think was so cute. They had a small white dog named Stacy and I loved her so much. Gord has a cousin who to this day I still call my Aunt, Cindy. She always took me and my siblings out on road trips or would just hang out with us kids. It was while we were living with Gord and Ginger that I somehow managed to catch Chicken Pox. Ginger had a restaurant out in Bragg Creek, Alberta and she would often bring me and my siblings with her. While we lived at Gord and Ginger's our birth mom Jackie was allowed to come out to Redwood Meadows and help Ginger take care of us. While we were at Gord and Ginger's we all went to church on Sunday mornings. We all stayed at Gord and Ginger's until just before Christmas 1999.
By Christmas 1999, the government sadly decided to split me and my siblings up so Edmund and Lucy went to live in Airdrie with Rick and Shelly and it was then that me and Susan met and lived with Ora and Keith.
Ora and Keith had two grownup daughters, Coreen and Crystal, and a grownup son, Lee, all who were really nice and I have kept in touch with all of them to this day. In the fall of 2000, I started school at Jerry Potts Elementary School with my sister Jessica. It was when I first started going to Jerry Potts that I learned that I would get nosebleeds from out of nowhere and I didn't know when to expect them.
My most fondest memory of living with Susan was the one time that we were in the basement and I went upstairs and she yelled up the stairs at me "Dalton, don't leave me".
Some of my fondest memories at Ora and Keith's happened in Summer 2000 when Ora and Keith (I'll just call them mom and dad for the rest of their part in my Autobiography) took me, Susan and their other foster children Hailey and Korey (who are biologically brother and sister) to BC to visit mom and dad's extended family (mom's birth mom- who is now passed away, mom's stepdad and dad's sister Marlene and others too). It was when we were visiting Aunty Marlene in Kamloops, BC we were at an outdoor waterpark and I got my first and only (to this day) bee stinger caught in between my toes and I found my love for puzzles. I even completed my first and only 300 piece puzzle in 1 hour non stop. We visited mom's mom and stepdad in Clinton, BC that same summer and I will never forget the cute, quaint little church house that was there. I remember attending one or maybe two services there that summer. I remember Winter 2000 very well as it was then that Calgary got the most snow I had ever seen in my 6.5 years. One snow bank I remember was as high as half the height of a 2 story house. Mom and dad were also Christian and while me and Susan lived with them we attended the Jubilee Christian Centre every Sunday morning.
It was the Summer of 2001 when I had to say goodbye to Edmund and Lucy as they had found their forever home with their Adopted Parents Keltie and Daniel.
After 3 years of living with mom and dad, I had become uncontrollable and my outbursts became more and more frequent so they moved me out to Airdrie for a week of Respite.
This is where I will end Chapter 2.
YOU ARE READING
My Autobiography
Non-FictionMy title says it all. It may seem boring but please feel free to comment. :) Some names have been changed.
