Many people’s streets are pretty screwed up but, mine is more than just screwed up. It all started when my mother was sixteen years of age, she was married to a man named Matthew. When my mother was 17, right after her birthday, she found out she was pregnant with my older sister, Ashley. My sister Ashley has Autism. By the time my mother was 19, she had my older brother Donovan, who was born in 1993. About the age of 21 she had my older sister Audrey, and I don’t know what is wrong with her. During a 2 year separation my mother got together with a man named Seth, but never married him, then I was born. We were homeless for a while, then my mother decided we needed a place to live and got back together with her ex-husband. Through marriage he became my adopted father.

My mom gave birth to my little brother in the year 1999. He has Asperger’s tendencies.  When I was 10 my mom left Matthew for good and married a paramedic named Jon Kevin. My mom came and visited us every once in a while. Matthew dressed in black a lot and acted like an “emo”. We were abused, but thought it was discipline, and the abuse was something my mom didn’t know about. I eventually transferred schools. By the time I turned 13 years old we were forced to tell our mother we didn’t want to see her ever again.

My older brother Donovan was shoved into a wall by Matthew and, when he was seventeen years old, he ran away. Right over the four foot fence! After that, I became the primary target for the abuse. After the next three years I was sexually harassed, sexually assaulted, beaten, and starved. My adopted father eventually called my mom and told her to come and get the kids. We came over and to my surprise she had 2 more children. From that day on our lives have changed and that Matthew man? Oh, he has 7-8 counts of abuse in the state of Kansas.