My name is Angel, I come from an American-Mexican family and I live in a one-bedroom apartment with my sister, aunt and 5 other people. My neighborhood is the place your mother tells you not to go, and my neighbors are the people she says you should not see. My own mother never warned me of these things because she became a drug addict when I was in kindergarten and ran off with a man. She came back a year later to kidnap my older sister and I. She hid us in the most dilapidated building I’d ever seen, in Tijuana, Mexico, with a different … [Read more...]

 “You are going to have a brother,” my mom told me. You could never imagine how these words changed my life.  My brother was born with Downs Syndrome.  He motivates me to succeed in life.  Like him, when I put my head into something, I accomplish it.  I saw my parents’ frustration when they would tell my brother to do something and he did not understand.  At that moment I told myself I would try to work twice as hard at school to make up for my brother’s incapacity. I started getting myself on top of things and I tried to understand … [Read more...]

My name is Sadie and I have been in 12 schools and lived in countless places. My parents were addicted to drugs and alcohol and split up when I was three. After my Dad left us my mother started to abuse my sister and drugs. Finally, we moved into a homeless shelter and after six months, my sister and I were placed in a foster home. After a year the foster family didn’t want us anymore, we were separated. I was alone, I ate alone and not one of my foster “parents” would speak to me. After a month, I said “God if you’re real, find me a home … [Read more...]