By providing me with all my needs and most of my wants, my parents gave me the best life they could afford.

I am in need of a powerpoint i need to present in class today that should last 3 minutes.  It is for my child welfare class and i am to talk about my family and issues i went through as a child.  I have attached the rubic of what is required and also the paper I turned in that the presentation should relate to.  It cant be word for word just a summary of my paper.

Expounded on identified family members, child welfare service, and family issue • demonstrates thorough research and knowledge of course textbook. • discussed subject matter relevant to assignment. • Use of multiple references to course textbook (more than 3). • Sources are cited appropriately ( APA)

December 24, 2015 my mother a father was blessed with my presence.  To make the day a little more special, God decided it was time for me to come into this world the day before Christmas and also on my father’s birthday.  Even though my father had three children in his first marriage, I was raised as an only child. By providing me with all my needs and most of my wants, my parents gave me the best life they could afford. The words “I love you” were not spoken much in our home, and communication was very poor.  As an adult I now know my parents loved their baby girl and after his death I discovered they truly loved each other.  Life wasn’t always easy for us, but I witnessed my parents give life’s struggles the best fight they had.

I grew up in a small rural town called Statenville, Georgia.  This was a town where every face was familiar.  Growing up on the black side also known as “down the hill”, I became very familiar with segregation and had great knowledge on me growing up on the poor side.  Nevertheless, looking back on my childhood, my memories were everything but deprived.  I grew up in an African American penocostal church, in which everybody was family.  My grandfather was the Bishop and my aunt was the pastor. Every member was a family member.  If one struggled we all struggled.   None of us had a lot, but the love and laughs made us the riches family on God’s green earth.

Before I was born my father was release from working for the railroad and found a job working for PCS phosphate of White Spring, Florida.  My mother was a seamstress at a sewing plant in Jasper, Florida.  Into my childhood I remember the long hours they both put in to build a house and provide for our family.  This resulting in my grandmother raising me along with several other cousins.  I spent more time with her than I did at home, but it was my chose.  My grandmother fell sick and I always wanted to be with her.  Never wanting to leave her side, she was also more like a mother to me than a grandmother.  Her relationship with her daughter, my mother, was strained but that didn’t interfere with my grandmother and I having an unbreakable bond.  There were stories of my childhood where at the age of two and three years old I was running away every couple of days, only to be found down the street at my grandparent’s house.

There was a time when I was six years old, my grandmother and my mom had a really bad argument about my mom’s relationship with my father.  At this time I discovered my father had other children and just recently got a divorce from their mother to marry my mom.  By my family being Christians they felt my mother’s relationship was not of God and unholy. This is when I realized why their relationship was so sour and cruel at times.  This argument never left my mind, I felt left out and betrayed by both of my parents.  Even after they married my dad continued his usual infidelities and betrayed his family time and time again.  Being a daddy’s little girl I still loved him and did not familiarize myself with this part of his life.  I knew and pretended I didn’t.  This upset my mother and she began to release her frustration on me.

When I was ten, there was a time my father was laid off due to sickness and my mother struggled to work two jobs.  Yet there was never a time I can remember going without.  Unfortunately, times did get hard and the stresses of life weighed down on my parents relationship.  There was a time that my father was not around for a couple of weeks at a time.  Money wasn’t the same in out household.  My mother applied for assistance, and was declined due to her making too much. I can remember her tears and frustration.  No food stamps for us.  She pulled through this hard time resulting in lights and water was never cutting off.  Eviction notices were never in my view.  Even though we still preferred help from what she expressed to me, she pulled through.  Headstrong and driven, she gave it all she had until we were able to manage through life’s struggles.

Mentally the personal issues my mom and dad experienced weighed heavy on me.  I began to act out in school.  My grades dropped and I became depressed.  Bad habits were picked up such as fighting and being defiant.  Even though my father eventually came back, my parents were frequently breaking up throughout my childhood.  This carried on into my high school career.  My relationship with my mother became strained due to me blaming her on my dad leaving. My mother didn’t really know how to deal with my behavior, so spankings turned into physical abuse.  In return I began to run away, and looked for love in all the wrong places.  My biggest wish was to find a way out.  After the death of my grandmother, the abuse from my mother and the disappearing acts of my father love was something I yearned to feel again.

At 16 years old I convinced myself, when graduating, I was going to the army and this would be my new family.  I became serious about my studies and was destined to make something bigger of myself then what had become of my family.  I visioned a better life for myself.  I distance myself from the dysfunction in my family and sought a way out.  At this time my mother and I did not have a relationship at all and her beating became fights. I began to date a drug dealer and moved out at 17 years old.  This was my escape from my hell, only to waken in a deeper hell.  My new man beat me worse than my mom and unfortunately I thought this was love.  He beat me black and blue.  Until the last fight when he put a gun to my head, this young man had control over me.  Once I was able to get out of this situation I did not look back.  I joined the military at 18.

My vision was bigger than my circumstances. My vision was bigger than my circumstances.  My parents were not perfect and neither was I.  They gave me the best life they know how and for that I am thankful.  My parents created a very strong woman who learned from their mistakes and her own.  Now at the age of 30, I also provide the best life I can for my boys.  For that I am thankful I have fought a good fight and able to endure the struggle.