Kids Rescuing Kids | You\'re My Second Mama, Aren\'t You

// September 7th, 2012 // Cultural Concepts, Facts of Life, Foster Care, I Survived, Identity, Journeys, Survival Strategies, Things That Worked

I am going to continue to talk about the foster care system for a few more weeks.? There is a great deal to say about it, and if any of these posts help raise awareness about this important issue, I will be glad.

The very first edition of the Adoption Voices Magazine featured Hawaii?s youngest foster mom, Wendy Peltier. ?Wendy?s story is absolutely fascinating, because she is a ?foster kid? herself, and has had her life story written in a book in both English and the Hawaiian language. ?I met Wendy when I was on vacation in Hawaii and she volunteered her story.

Wendy?s mother was loving and kind, but also very addicted to Meth. ?Wendy was a middle child of six children and even at the tender age of seven years old, she attempted to take care of her brothers and sisters along with keeping their home together, when her mother was incapacitated or simply gone. ?After years of bouncing in and out of foster care, Wendy?s life also went off the rails, which is not at all surprising with the burden she was carrying.

Despite these odds, Wendy managed to get her life together, essentially raise herself; and then had some amazing experiences with other foster youth in Hawaii. ?When she was old enough to rescue her younger brother from the foster care system, she became Hawaii?s youngest foster parent. ?She did all of this while working several jobs, studying for a college degree, and is now in the process of getting herself into law school. ?Her experiences have made her resilient and determined, and her goal is to become a judge so that she can make good decisions for other troubled children.

I did not know what ?slam poetry? was, until I saw this link that highlights Wendy?s participation in a slam poetry contest. ?A poetry slam is a competition at which poets read or recite original work. These performances are then judged on a numeric scale by previously selected members of the audience.

I will let this video and a written version of her poetry tell her story because she tells it much better than I ever could!

Wendy Peltier presents us with her slam poetry in this video. ?Please move the cursor bar to 7.31 to view and hear Wendy Peltier?s poem.

Wendy?s written poem is below.

Who am I? What Makes Me?

Do I go according to that one psychology analysis
That makes me think so much my brain gets paralysis?
Do we listen to the ones that think they know u?
Or to society?s prominent and famous ?for the people? RULE!
Do I even know who I am?
Is my opinion biased?
Cause I swear it?s not myself that puts me? at the highest..
So who am I?
I am a female, a citizen, a friend, a parent, a human being.
Judgement is just not my thing!

Many people tend to criticize others from how they are visually seen.
Not knowing that she may just have the heart of a queen!

Who has the authority to say who we are?
Without witnessing the pain that left a scar?
Wounds, injuries, scuffs, and abrasions surrounding my heart..
When is the good part of life suppose to start.

If I?d never shared with you that I was born an addict
And that i used a razor to show the pain that I just had it!

You?d never know that half my family was doing crystal?
And at the age of ten, I was hoping to shoot my self with a pistol.

My story is far to long to give every detail
But all u need to know is:

For my family I did not bail
For myself I did not fail
For statistics: I?d never went to jail
And for the government: fuck your rating scale.

Adoption, kinship supervision, emergency shelter, temporary placement, foster care?.

House to house, home to home?.

And I swear as I stare? All I wanted was a family to be there.

How much more pain can this innocent child spare!

Now over coming the pain and turning it into strength
Is far from just the simple focal length.

It started with the power of having? a voice!!!
Followed by the right to have a choice!

I took in the ones under me beneath my wing
so they can experience that the meaning of family is a real thing!

My 8 year old brother? Hey wth that?s not hard..

Ha, try 15 year old sister that?s just as scarred?

Being a single parent at the age of 18 wasn?t the result.
Reality was ?. I was still a baby trying to be an adult!

But I pulled it through..
I?ve concurred the battle?
The battle of surviving!
The battle of not giving up
The battle of helping them survive.

Next was to combat and fight
Fight to believe
Fight to succeed
Fight to teach
Fight to live

And who said life was easy????

At the age of 25, it?s only getting started.

And this type of story is totally uncharted!

Graduating with my four year degree with a G.P.A of 3.9?

Working 2-3 jobs, caring for
My siblings, and going to school full-time!
To exist?I did everything it took!
Hey, I even published a book?.

Easy to say.. Hard to do
But it wasn?t impossible?

Now who said it was impossible??

I know?I know who thinks it?s impossible..
My brothers and sisters in the crazy ass system that has no one to turn to and no one to count on?
Suicide, drugs, and alcohol was the only? way out? The easy way out..
Not knowing any other way?
Because in realism? We felt like children? astray?

A stray in families, a stray in schools, a stray in our heads?.

I speak for Myself.. And I speak to them!!
To remind my people, my family, my friends, my children that life is not just about struggles and pain?

It?s about learning to love what we have, appreciate who we are, accepting what life has given us, understanding that it?s not easy!

Surviving and breathing is already making it! Smiling is already making it. Loving for your self will help you make it!
We need to live to love and not love to live?.

Some think that I have already made it.

But For me :

The war has just begun?
The war of teaching my brothers and sisters.
The war of helping them find their way.
The war of planting the seed of life in those that don?t have one..
And the war of watering the plants so they can plant more seeds in the future!

So who am I?

I am a female, a citizen, a friend, a parent?

I am a human being.

I am what you are seeing.

Source: http://mysecondmama.com/2012/09/kids-rescuing-kids/

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