I was removed from my parent’s home at Age thirteen. I couldn’t have been more relieved. Nine months later I returned home, but things were never the same. The first time my Dad and Stepmother became upset with me and my sister they threatened foster care. And, that’s just what happened. I was back in foster care, tried living with my biological mother, then back into foster care. I went through a lot. Something in me kept pushing me along though. I never felt satisfied with what I saw, and believed their had to be more out there than what I saw.In the end, I’d have to say things did work out, relatively speaking. Of course, I had my share of issues. I had next to no support system, and still in the process of trying to figure out who I was, where I belonged, and of all those fun things. But, there are some major game changers that I was able to avoid.I grew up with a strong work ethic, so that worked in my favor. When I graduated from high school at eighteen. I already had a job and was able to rent an apartment the day following graduation. With out this, who knows what direction I could have gone. Maybe I would have went the homeless route, or welfare.I also never became pregnant until much later in life. Had I - my whole life would have turned upside down.My friends and I, during some of my teenage years, were into plenty of drugs and alcohol. It was the 70’s after all. While there were fun times, most were not if I was to be honest. I eventually left that world too. About ten years later, my best friend from that time consequently died from complications of drinking.With everything I experienced up until the age of eighteen, I could have easily gone down a different road.Ultimately, we do choose the direction in which we want to go. But so many factors play into those decisions and some adolescents truly aren’t capable of making right choices when they need to. I believe it would be completely unfair of me to credit myself for things working out the way they did.A couple big problems is that many foster children have never been taught to think of themselves in a worthy way; they often have little to no self value. Loving parental guidance is often a foreign concept. Well, the list goes on.Success for us, and/or things turning out good in the end, can look different from let’s say, a child in the Beaver Cleaver household. And don’t let anyone tell you that doesn’t exist. It does! I’ve met them. But I digress…In my late twenties I finally went to college and became an elementary teacher. Ironically, I was the first of five siblings to go to college.I want to acknowledge God in all of this. I don’t know where I’d be without him!