The Early Years...Part I

I spent some more quality time with Pastor this week. It was 90 minutes of traveling back into time of my childhood. I left the office having learned an important lesson...I had no other choices in my life at the time. 

Let's venture back to when I was very young. I was an only child until I was almost 4. I often wonder what it might have been like, had I been the only child...or the oldest of a few, not 7 kids (on mom's side) and the second oldest of 5 (on dad's side). I never remember seeing my dad or his side of the family until I was an adult. However, I remember bits and pieces of my stepdad's (Alan) side of the family growing up.

Alan married my mom when I was 3. They would have celebrated 35 y ears of marriage this year, had he not passed on nearly 10 years ago. I remember from the get go - I was the stepchild - I was not "his". I was constantly reminded of this growing up. My sister Brandy came in '76 on a cold, wintry January night in Minnesota. I remember this vividly, because we lost our first house and everything in it, in a major fire that very same month. Our neighbor (duplex) left an old water heater on the front porch and it exploded! Our house was old, and had wood floors throughout. We stayed with family for a while and eventually moved to Florida a few years later - I never knew why?!? I don't remember any family in the area. But it set a huge path in my life. Before we left, there was a total of 4 kids: Brandy, Heather '77, and Kizzie '79.

I remember living near the red clay - "dirt" in Florida. I remember my third grade teacher - never understood why - her name - Mrs. Jackie Coppenger. She was an older lady with white hair. I remember that the classes were in a huge room and were just divided by moving walls. My favorite subjects were math and spelling. The next memory I have of Florida was not so happy. The cops came to our door early one morning. You see, Alan went out the day before to get hamburger buns for dinner...and didn't come back that night. I remember my mom crying when they came to the door and I remember her leaving shortly after......and she didn't come back that night either. It turns out that Alan broke into someone's house and tried stealing something. He shot the man and was arrested and went to jail. Apparently, my mom ran off with his cell mate. He was from Tennessee. You see over the next 3 years my mom had also left...she took two of my siblings and left. She left myself and another sibling at a neighbor's house. Two weeks later, after no contact with any family, they turned us over to Division of Family Services.

We spent a few nights in an "emergency" foster home. It was horrible. I remember it being really hot and there being daddy long leg spiders. We only spent a couple of days there. Then we moved into a more permanent foster home. Carmen and Scott became our foster parents for the next 3 years. I was 7, almost 8 years old at the time. I remember crying for my mom. Brandy was barely 4 years old. She had no idea what was going on either. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

The  next time I would see my mom - I would have gained a little brother, Joe '82 and another sister, Amanda '83.