Christina’s foster care story begins in 1987 when she was just an infant. She was born into a poverty-stricken family and her parents struggled as a result. Christina was only a few months old when she and her four older siblings were removed from their home, split up, and entered Florida’s foster care system.
Christina was placed in a foster home until a final determination was made by the courts. About two years later the rights of her parents were legally terminated. Christina was now a ward of the state. When Christina was 3 years old, her foster parents officially adopted her. Throughout childhood Christina’s adoptive parents made her believe that they were in fact her birth parents. As Christina aged, her mixed-race ancestry became more and more apparent causing her suspicions to grow and her trust for them to diminish.
Beginning around 5 years old, Christina’s mother began treating her differently from the other adoptees and fosters in the house. Christina didn’t feel loved or appreciated. Rather she felt like that black sheep of the family. The tiniest shortcoming in chores, homework, or behavioral expectations was met with a vicious beating. Christina recalls that her mother would hit her wielding a wooden spoon, vacuum cleaner, shovel, and other objects. At 8 years old, Christina’s trauma was compounded when her adoptive brother started molesting her. He was able to force her silence and continue his illicit acts on occasion over the next few years.
After behavioral problems developed and Christina reported the molestation at school, Christina’s adoptive parent dissolved the adoption and forced her to re-enter foster care at age 11. She bounced around the foster care system from one foster placement to another. Christina found it immensely difficult to adjust to the frequent cycle of unfamiliar people, places, and things. Christina endured 19 group homes and 68 foster home placements before aging out of the system. On her 18th birthday, Christina had to leave where she was living with only a trash bag of clothes to take with her.
Christina lacked life’s basic necessities and was unprepared for independence. Without any other options available to her, she reluctantly moved into a detached apartment at her biological father’s house. She had only just recently met him and wasn’t convinced that this would have a positive and healthy outcome. Within a few months, he raised Christina’s rent to an amount he knew she couldn’t afford. It was that hostile takeover that forced Christina into homelessness. Without stable housing, Christina soon after lost her job too.
Through trial and error, …and error, …and error, Christina eventually learned the life skills she needed, but was not taught during foster care. Christina started Operation Phoenix and created the Age Out of the Ashes program to reduce homelessness, promote education, create jobs, and support fosters through their transition into adulthood.
