Winter storm of 1993
There are many things that should have never happened in my life and many more things that would happen. But as me and my sisters was in the system for three and a half years now and we were getting used to our life. The shock of my failed adoptions and the reason behind them also brought many more failures because of the choices of my mother. Me and Paula had worked hard for the system as we did publicity photos and during this time a winter storm hit as all the roads and school shut down. Most people called this abbrieved time the winter storm of nineteen ninety three.
The storm came in and knocked out all of the power and the water pipes froze and the snow was so high when we opened the door snow came inside. All of our fire wood froze and we would have to take turns bringing it into our fireplace which was located in the living room area to thaw and dry out. Some said it lasted two to three days,but I remembered it lasted over three months for us girls at the group home.
I remember the sun had melted the snow and yet we stayed at home because of our house parents. We would all huddled in the large living room as we used a blanket to cover the doorway to keep heat in the room. We would take turns stoking the fire and keeping it burning and we survived off of canned foods and melted snow water. When we had to use the bathroom the hallways were so cold we could see our breath.
We wore three pairs of sweats and when the power company came down our windy road that was five miles from the road the house parents had a family golden retriever . The power company driver had lost control and slid into the power poll breaking it and killing the dog in the process.
I suppose after that point the power company forgot about us as we didn't see them for many weeks after that until the national guards showed up to see the conditions we were living in .
We had enough food in the all purpose building to last us for a while to feed us as we took turns gathering snow to melt the it for drinking water and washing water . We heated up open cans of vegetables and had to choose our vegetables to eat as we went through all the canned meat and fruit the first few days. We had no food left over to feed the pigs so we had to split the chicken feed and horse grains between the pigs. We usually had heaters in the winter to warm the pig kennels,but with the power being off all we could do was cover the walls with window plastic to keep the pigs warm and hand scoop the floors since we didn't have water to spray out the pins. The horses we had to make sure their blankets were on and closed all the doors and gave them extra hay and constantly break layers of ice out of their watering barrels . As we watched and monitored their water levels since there was no fresh water going into the water barrels since all the pipes were frozen.
We had to put the cattle in the storage barn to keep them warm and the chickens we couldn't collect the egg because we had nowhere to keep them since we needed to wash the eggs to place in the storage refrigerators we had but since we had no water to spare we couldn't wash the eggs to store them to keep them cold and fresh .weeks went by and finally the power company came around and the national guard came by with water as we were all huddled up in the house for weeks as our house parents kept us out of school when the front was able to walk on. None of us had gone to school for weeks and when we went to school that day when we were back to normal we came home to a new set of house parents we didn't know.
It was strange how we went to school after the storm and we saw our house parents and when we came back new ones were moving in. This new house parents had only one son and his name was Adam and he was my age. I remembered him all these years because he didn't treat the foster kids like we were delinquents or even asked what we were here for.
He was ten years old and didn't care. Of course he home schooled as he didn't attend school with us foster kids and when we came home he was eager to play with us. Even though they were not allowed to play with us because we were in the system and he wasn't he still treated me like I was a normal girl. My sister Paula was turning eleven and I was about to turn ten as she had this game she would play at night with the other girls called choke out.
It's where you would choke another until you passed out and she would always do it when the house parents went to bed. Children in the system find a way to play games that was dangerous and when we weren't playing with death we were playing light as a feather stiff as a board where none of the girls realized what I was at the time . One night when we were playing and we lifted a girl as the girls got freaked out and started screaming .
We never played that game ever again as they got spooked and one girl got choked out and passed out too long as someone ran and told the house parents who was playing the games after hours . We all had to pull thistles the next week because someone almost got hurt that night.
When I was nine all we had to drink was either sweet tea and coke . Water wasn't an option most nights as I had been drinking four years of sodas and teas as a normal drink . One night my sides were in pain and I didn't feel well as I barley made it to the house parents apartments and banged on the door as the house mom was doing her nails as I fell into the floor unable to move.
I was rushed to the hospital and taken to the emergency room. I stayed in the hospital for an entire summer as I had an enlarged kidney that was very inflamed . Because of this my preferences for sodas was a game changer. My kidneys because extremely sensitive to long term sodas consumption.
The doctors never confirmed it but it also had a lot to do with my A D H D medication as well as I was detoxing from the medicine as I wasn't given it at all during my three weeks in the hospital. As I took antibiotics to reduce my kidneys . I was given only water and milk until I returned to normal.
During this time I would go to the children's wards on some days to play super Mario Brothers in the children's ward with kids who had pale skin and bald head. I would see different kids each time and although I knew they were sick like me I also knew their sickness was different than mine as some had breathing tubes and were in wheel chairs.
During this time my mother mother was granted personal visitations and she never once visited me in the hospital. She would spend time with Paula while I was being treated. My father may have made many mistakes in his life but the one thing he did right was ask for a divorce from my mother so she could be able to see us again.
I may not have agreed with him on anything he did in his life from that point on . But him divorcing my mom to make it where we could come home was the best thing he did for us . My mom took the divorce bad and she went down a really dark path in her life where she made it all about her career.
I somehow felt she resented is for his making her divorce him. My family in Hawaii offered to take us home since her mom was in the foster care system and knew how it felt to be in the systems. My mother remarked that if she couldn't have her own kids they couldn't have them either. My mother's pettiness knew no bounds even when it was against her own family.