Michelle’s mother was a single mom. She was removed from her home first at age 9, reunited with her mother, then placed back in foster care at age 12. She doesn’t remember her 9-year-old experience very well. But she does remember what it was like when she was 12. Michelle felt alone and scared.
She didn’t mind being brought up in a home where her single mother had multiple partners, where her mother drank, and where her mother abused her children verbally and emotionally. That was normal life for her. Being taken away, she was afraid. Michelle is typical of many foster children. Now, as a young adult, looking back on her life in foster care, she wishes things could have been different.
