Excerpt From USA Today Article
I Believe In The Power That Words Hold
For most of her life, Sophia Williams-Baugh had no concept of what a healthy relationship should look like.
Adopted out of foster care at 6, Williams-Baugh said she endured years of abuse and neglect. She told USA TODAY she sometimes went days without food and was forced to go to the bathroom in a bucket.
She said she was removed from that Michigan home and placed back in foster care in 2001, just before her 14th birthday. The teen moved among foster homes and residential facilities until aging out of the system.
Williams-Baugh spent years celebrating her birthday, holidays, and life’s major milestones alone. She said her traumatic childhood made it difficult to build lasting connections – especially after her adoption failed. She gravitated toward the wrong men, suffering sexual and emotional abuse.
“We thought these people were supposed to love us and be there for forever,” Williams-Baugh said, referring to her adoptive parents. “Then when we meet these men, we don't even expect the love anymore. We don’t expect the forever. So we just go with the flow just so we can feel like we have somebody for that moment, even though we know it’s only for a moment.”
It took a long time to get herself out of that mindset, she said, but now, at 35, Williams-Baugh is married with five children.
Read the full article here: Adoption failure spurs adoptees’ desire to help others (usatoday.com)
I Cope Via Creative Writing
Writing releases emotions, feelings, while figuring out the trigger leading to those feelings and/or emotions. Writing can be used to vent when there is no one you can talk to. Writing can help one cope as they struggle through a particular situation. Enjoy my blogs originally written on the Huffington Post blogger platform, now on WordPress. New ones are added as I get the opportunity to write.