When you lose your mother to cancer and are then removed from your father’s care to another state, it can threaten to eliminate all hopes and dreams for a successful future. This is the beginning of the story, but not the end for one of FAFS’ private scholarship winners.

While children usually celebrate the ending of school year and prepare for summer days filled with fun, she had to say goodbye to her mother. She recalls holding on to her mom and taking in every memory she could of the delicate flower that was soon to pass away. It is no surprise that, when her mother passed, she felt a piece of herself disappeared.

That Sunday she went to church with her father, but she did not leave with him. The Department of Human Services came to take her and her two brothers away. It was then she knew her life was never going to be the same. She waited to finally go home to her father; that day never came. The question that rang most in her mind was “Why me?” In her mind, foster care was only for abused children. She had just lost her mother and then began to realize her father didn’t have the strength to hold up himself or his children. Continue reading →