Battling through poverty, she took every visit with her children as a gift, and even though living in her car, found work. After some time she married and had two more children, but the marriage would end after 4 years. Not wanting that life for her child she fled, pregnant for the second time. By her junior year of high school she was pregnant and herself in a relationship with a violent man. The spiral down was swift and homelessness became her reality. After her father left them, her hope for normal life was shattered as her mother coped by turning to drugs. At first it was her father, an alcoholic, beating her mother while she hid in a closet. Marguerite and her sisters were raised in a home where addiction fueled violence and indifference. This leads to “.the beginning of a new, and improved life. Since being at TFCF she now has hope that she can remain out of incarceration, maintain her sobriety, and reach self-sufficiency. Star is learning how to live a life of structure and meeting all of the requirements to be able to reunify with her son. At first it was an address for parole and probation but after spending time in the program her intentions have changed. Expecting a lengthier sentence, she was surprised with early release, and while waiting to meet her probation officer called Time for Change Foundation. With two strikes and a newly discovered battle against not only addiction, but mental health issues, Star channeled her guilt, and her untreated trauma into blaming others. Two years later she paroled out, only to return within six months. Consumed with guilt, Star would immediately fall into a life of recidivism, acting out and finding herself incarcerated within the month. The judge decided to take away her parental rights. She was given a list of things to do for reunification but after six months, she had missed two parenting classes, and three drug tests. “Before I could explain my side of the story, they were driving away with my baby.” She was determined to fight to be reunited with her child. She did everything she could to care for him, but he was taken from her on his very first birthday. Referring to her early life as a “roller coaster,” Star was determined to be the best mother to her son, Ze’veon. She feels freer than she ever has, and gives thanks God for showing her the bottom so she’d find the strength to climb up. “I’ve learned who Cynthia is,” she tells us. Cynthia has gained self confidence, and smiles now. They attend family therapy, working to create a bond that was missing in her addiction. She began visits with her children, and now, they’ve been completely reunified, moving into an apartment together. However, since coming to Time for Change Foundation, Cynthia began individual counseling, and is now employed. Cynthia entered into an abusive relationship, where she lost track of the days in her addiction. Now a mother, and still dealing with untreated emotional traumas, drugs became a craving and release from everyday struggles. This normalization of substance abuse led to more trauma, and a relationship where she would begin using herself for the first time at 22. After her Nana’s advanced age forced a return to her mother, she began to witness her mother’s addiction firsthand. Removed from her mother’s custody, and fostered by her Nana as a youth, Cynthia dealt with neglect, emotional trauma, and abuse as a child.
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