If I had to describe my childhood in one word it would be tough. My single mom struggled to pay the bills and my father, who never played the role of dad in my life, was an alcoholic.
I am not telling you these things so you will feel sorry for me. While I am not proud of the way I grew up, I love my family and wouldn’t trade my childhood. It made me who I am today.
I have never liked school. When I went into third grade, my teacher, Mrs. Foster, would give me lots of extra help. She started bringing me and my sister to her house, and we would spend the weekends there sometimes. We loved it. Genita and I would lay in bed at night at the Fosters' house and talk about how we wished they would adopt us.
After a couple years of going to stay with them on some weekends, we lost our house, but I didn’t tell Mrs. Foster. Because of that, our phone number changed and she couldn’t get in touch with me. I tried to call her many times over the years, but they got rid of their house phone. I called it so much, I can still remember that number.
Over the next several years, my family started spreading out to find different places to stay. Every morning when I left for school, I would put clothes in my backpack because I wasn’t sure where I would end up sleeping that night.
When I was 17, my sister called me and said that Mrs. Foster was trying to find me. As soon as I heard that, we talked on the phone and the next day the Fosters came to pick me up. I started spending time with them, and they asked me to come live with them.
I was having a hard time seeing how I could live with this family that I hadn’t seen in seven years. But they kept spending time with me and treating me just like their other kids. So my senior year in high school, I officially became a Foster.
After a couple months, they made a rule that I had to come to church every Sunday. So I started coming here to Blue Ridge. One night I had a long talk with Mom and Dad about Jesus, and they told me I should go to the Encounter group to find out more for myself.
I started going every Tuesday with Dad to go through the book of John. And that’s when it started making sense to me. But I still had doubts if it was real.
Around that same time, Chris Spencer started spending time with me and would ask me lots of different questions that got me thinking about what I was learning from the Bible.
At first I was worried about needing to be perfect in order to accept Christ. But I went to Georgia to a Christian camp with Chris Spencer, and there I realized that God takes you just as you are and wants to turn you into something new. After about eight months of thinking this over, I knew I was ready to let Jesus know me and to let Him into my life.
Before, I looked to habits for my satisfaction in life. But now, I realize I don’t need that stuff to be happy.
I feel different. I am learning so much by reading the Bible. I am telling people about my new life in Christ. And I want to keep growing closer to Jesus!