My journey through foster care was emotionally draining. My foster mother, whom I will not name, was only in it for the money. She had no problem telling me so. I lived with her for a little over a year and I couldn't stand it. She was always telling my social worker that I wasn't doing things she asked me to do. She refused to give me a key to her house so when I came home from school I was locked out for about 30 minutes to an hour at a time.
Embarrassing enough I peed myself 2 or 3 of those times. I was too scared to tell my social worker about it. She ended up telling my social worker that I frequently peed my pants on outings. When my social worker asked me about the incidents I explained to her what really happened. My social worker told my foster mother she needed to give me a key to the house, she never did give me a key. If she remembered she would put the key in the grill on the back porch for me.
We lived in a nice neighborhood and a police officer lived next door. But she said that she was afraid that I would steal from her. She would also say that she didn't make enough money to keep me. She would also frequently ask my social worker for "time off". Which is allowed for you are housing a foster child long term. They recommended every 6 months because I was a teenager. I recall being placed in about 2 or 3 other foster homes for her "time off".
One of these homes I remember so well. The woman who was meant to be watching me left the house. She left me there with her elderly mother, who scared the poo out of me. She would occasionally come out of her room and start yelling. Then she forced me to go into her bathroom. She wasn't trying to hurt me, she just wanted me to see her new shower curtain. But, for a 14 year old girl that is scary. I had no idea what to do. I stayed in that house for about 3 days.
I was suppose to go with this woman to church on Sunday. I was so excited because being in her house scared me. But, she left without because she didn't want to take me to her church. But she told my social worker that we went to the mall and that she did, in fact, take me to her church.
The day that I was suppose to leave, I found the biggest spider I had ever seen. It crawled out from under a box in the closet. It proceeded to crawl towards my suitcase and I throw a book at it. When I told the woman about the spider she said that I was probably seeing things.
That is a year of my life I won't forget!
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