My Name Is Tommia Townsend , Im 13 & Im In 8th Grade . My Grandma Raised Me Basically My Whole Life When I Was Younger . My Mom Would Go Out With Friends Alot Or Men So My Grandma Watched Me.
My Grandma Was A Very Fun Person To Be Around , She Taught Me How To Cook , Do Hair , & Even Dance . I Idolized Her , & I Still Do Today . But As I Got Older Me & My Grandma Got Kinda Distant Because My Mom Use To Take Me Over Friends & Drug Dealers Houses.
I Did'nt Really Like It Because I Knew What My Mom Had Came To Do ,, Smoke ,, Do Drugs ,, & Have Sex With Older Men For Money To Buy More Drugs . I Was KindnOf Ashamed To Know My Mom Did That But It Did'nt Really Affect Me Because I Still Had Clothes On My Back ,, A Roof Over My Head & Food On My Table Everyday .
But Then When I Started To Get Older Like 7 & 8 , My Mom Had Me Pee In Cups For Her So She Would'nt Fail Her Drug Test . Also Had Me Keeping Secrets From Certain People ,, It Was just Too Much For My Little Mind . Adding On To That She Would Leave Me In The Park And Have Me Walk Home By Myself . I Did'nt Even Feel Like The Child Anymore ,, I Felt Like The Adult To Myself. I Felt Like I Had To Take Care Of Myself Because I Did'nt Know When My Mom Was Going To Leave Me & Let Me Do Things My Self.
So I Started To Steal Food From Stores Because My Mom Made Me When She Did'nt Have The Money To Buy It . I Was Scared To Steal When She First Told Me ,, I Remember How The Whole Thing Went. We Were At CVS & They Had This Rubix Cube I Wanted ,, But My Mom Did'ny Have The Money To Pay For It So I Just Walked Around The Store Playing With It Till We Were Bout To Leave.
So When We Were Close To Walking Out The Store I Noticed I Still Had The Rubix Cube In My Hand So I Tried To Set It Down & My Mom Said No ,, Take It & I Just Stared At Her Nervously Like "What If I Get Caught" ,, I Did'nt Want To Get Caught But Then I Just Took It To Shut Her Up . After That ,, It Became A Habit ,, A Bad One. So I Stole Candy , Soap , Nail Polish & Perfume .
I Know That's A Crime But I Did It Because My Mom Made Me. But Anyways ,, WhenI Was 8 & One Day When I Was At School This Black Woman Approached & Asked To Take A Picture Me . So Not Knowing She Was The "Child Protective Services" ,, I Let Her Take A Picture Of Me . I Felt Kinda Awkward About Taking The Picture But I Did Anyways Because The Woman Was Very Nice . So After She Took The Picture She Left . Wich Was Very Skeptical . But The Next Day I Went To School She Showed Up Again ,, I Was Like "Where Is This Woman Coming From" ,, But She Asked Me Who My Mom Was ,, How Old I Was & About My Life.
Then She Just Left Again . I Thought Maybe She Was A Murder. But That's When It Started To Get Very Suspicious , But I Never Told Anyone About These Unusual Occurences. And Then The Day After That SHE CAME AGAIN!!!! Now Im Really Freaking Out . She Asked To See My Mom ,, So Of Course I Took Her To My Mom & She Asked My Mom Could She Follow Her To Where We Were Currently Staying ? ,, Wich Was A Family Family Friends House.
So When We Got To The House There Were Two Cop Cars Outside & Then The Nice Black Woman Got Out Of Her Car ,, Went Up To Mom & Said "I Am Taking Your Kids." I Looked At My Mom & Tears Just Start Rolling Down Her Face ,, & The Lady Was Trying To Tell My Mom Sorry But The Law Told Her To Take Us. So I Went In The House & Got All My Clothes ,, Tools & Nailpolish .Then I Came Back & Sat On The Porch Until It Was Time For Me To Go. All I Could Think Was Why Is This Happening To Me ? Why Are They Taking Me Away From My Mom ? I Was Hurting .
But No Longer Than 5 Mins ,, A Dark Blue Van Pulled Up & A White Lady Got Out & Approched Me. She Said "My Name Is Jessica " & Then Told Me To Start Putting My Things In The Van . I Put My Things In The Van & When I Was Done I Ran Back In The House . I Looked At Mom ,, Her Face Red & Wet With Tears Then I Ran To Her & Hugged HerTight ,, I Looked In Her Eyes ,, Told Her I Love Her & That Everything Was Going To Be Okay .Then I Picked Up My Nail Box Off The Porch & Looked Back One More Time At My Mom Because I Knew After This ,, Nothing Would Ever Be The Same . Then I Got In The Blue Van.
The Blue Van Drove Me To A Center Where They Had Toys , Movies , & Every Kind Of Toys You Could Think Of . Oops ,, I Forgot To Tell I Had A Little Sister Named Eternity . She Was Born In 2008 On November 5th ,, We Have Diffrent Daddies , But Not Everyone Knows . Her Daddy Is White & Mines Is Black . But Back To What Happened ,, When Me & My Little Sister Got To The Center She Was Crying Alot . She Kept Saying Mommy ,, So I Had To Give Her Toys To Stop Her From Crying .
So When She Got The Toys She Stopped Crying & Started To Play . While She Played I Layed Down On The Floor Thinking To Myself ,, " When Am I Going To Get Out Of Here ,, Am I Going To See My Mom Again ,, What Is Happening ? " So Then I Got Up & Went To Ask Jessica " When Am I Going To Be With My Mom Again ? " ,,, She Said In About 2 Or 3 Weeks . Then I Asked Her " What Am I Doing Just Sitting In This Center ?" & She Told Me A Nice Woman Was Going To Pick Me Up In The Morning . And I Said Okay ,, Then Layed Back Down On The Floor .
I Did'nt Go To Sleep ,, I Stayed Up All That Night Wondering & Thinking Who This Lady Was Going To Be That Was Picking Me Up & About When I Was Going To See My Mom Again . Then It Was Morning ,, Jessica Made Me & My Sister Hot Pockets For Breakfast ,,, When We Got Done Eating Jessica Told Me The Lady Was Here . I Was So Anxious & Scared ,, When I Saw Her She Was A Old Lady That Looked Mean But Was Actually Really Nice When I Met Her . So She Took Me & My Sisters Stuff & Put It In Her Car . Then We Drove Off To Her House .
When I First Got To Her House ,,, I Felt Wierd . Cause It Was Not The Normal Invoriment I Usually Lived In ,, Her House Looked All Dry & Cold Compared To My House That Would Always Be Full Of Life . But I Took My Stuff Into Her House & Then I Went Outside . I Sat In The Hot Sun Just Thinking About My Mom & How Much I Missed Her . I Just Wished That She Would Come Pick Me Up & Take Me Out This Strangers House . With All Thinking I Had Going On In My Head ,, I Begin To Cry . One Of The Old Lady's Friends Seen Me Crying & Came Over To Me & She Hugged Me & Told Me I Was Going To Be Okay . She Took Me In The House Still Hugging Me Rocking Back & Fourth . I Just Sat There In Her Arms Pouring Down Tears Because I Did'nt Think I Was Going To Be Okay ,, All I Wanted Was My Mom . I Cried For Days & Weeks ,, On Going To See My Mom & Just To Be With Her Again . Then Finally ,, They Opened Up Visitation Rights And I Got To See My Mom .
That Was The Happiest New I Had Ever Heard In A Long Time . I Was So Happy When I Got To See My Mom & So Was My Little Sister . But My Mom Did'nt Come To Alot Of The Visits So Then That Really Made Me Emotional . And It Got Her Visitations Took Away Permantly But When She Got Them Tooken They Gave Them To The People I Love The Most ,, My Grandparents . When they Gave It To Them I Was So Happy ,, And They Would Come To Every Visit . They Only Missed A Few . But Most Of The Time They Would Come .
I Remember How I Would Have So Much Fun At My Visits ,, But When I Would Get Home I Would Go Outside & Cry Because I Did'nt Want To Be At The Fosterhome . I Wanted To Be With My Family . The Foster Woman Would Hit Me With Paddles On My Feet Because She Would Accuse Me Of Doing Stuff ,,, When I Did'nt Even Do It . But I Would Never Tell Anyone ,, It Went On For Months . Until One Day I Was With My Grandma & I Told Her That The Foster Woman Has Been Hitting Me & She Told My Case Worker Jessica & Jessica Took Me Out Of That FosterCare Home & Placed Me In A New One.
