Her Story

Matters.

Without context, young adults from hard places can seem like strangers to fear instead of people who have suffered. Potential volunteers fear opening themselves up to relationship with a young man or woman who is, on the surface, so different. Take a moment to hear from Ali and then ask yourself, “If this was your story, how would your life be different?”

This is Ali's Story

There was a lot of times that we either didn’t have power or not enough food in the cupboards. I remember one month, we lived on crackers for a whole month because somebody had donated a huge thing to the salvation Army… and my mother was like, ‘I will take whatever you have.’

ALI WAS PLACED IN DHS CUSTODY WHEN SHE WAS 8 YEARS OLD.

My ex-stepfather ended up coming back into the picture. Him and my mother had been married when I was three and then they had gone their separate ways when he had become abusive towards her.

All I could think about was, for the first time ever, I would have a father. And so I moved there and things were great for about the first year. He worked a lot. I actually lived with him and his parents.

I had a history of cutting and self harm because I had been abused by a teacher from a private Christian school for going on 6, 7 months where he actually had gotten me pregnant and I miscarried and nobody knew.

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And then my ex-stepfather moved out and into a house with a 25-year-old pregnant lady who was not carrying his baby. And whenever she started trying to be my mother, I lost it. I snapped. Because she was not and I was jealous and hurt because all of the sudden I wasn’t my dad’s focus.

I got so depressed that I ended up trying to take my life. I swallowed over a hundred pills. I cut so bad that I still have the scars to this day.

After that I ended up getting put in a hospital. And she told him to choose her or me. And he chose her. So I went back into DHS custody after a guardianship of almost 6 years and I had to live with the realization that family isn’t forever.