The worthless. The loose cannon. The spawn of Satan. The bad seed. The lost cause. I was called all these things. Growing up in foster care, being kicked out of a children's home, and being rehomed by my adoptive family more times than I could count, didn't do me any favors either. Maybe they were right, maybe I was in fact, too far gone to matter. But children are blameless. Being born into circumstances I couldn't control and most certainly didn't ask for was truly unfair, but if I wanted to be better, if I wanted to be more than my pain and suffering, I had to be the change.

The time has come for me to share my story as I made my way through the foster care and adoption systems. Not every child has a story like mine. Not every child has a happy ending, but so many children do fall through the cracks of these broken systems, and the prices we pay sometimes are so severe that we never recover. It has taken me my whole life to overcome the traumas of the mental, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse I endured in my childhood. But I survived and have made it my life's purpose to bring awareness to these issues in any way possible because let me repeat myself: children are blameless. My story is also one of inner strength and resilience so if I can inspire even one person to not give up, especially on themselves, mission accomplished!