My Life Of My Family

Not my family. We knew the real person he was. Loving, caring, and so kind hearted. It was drugs. His drug of choice just so happened to be heroin. This wasn’t the first incident and it sure wasn’t the last . His addiction lasted about three years before he actually recovered. It’s destroyed not only my family but me as a person.

My family has always been there for me, especially my stepfather- Pablo. I use to hate him so much that I would be mean to him and call him names. Just because he wasn't my biological father I would do that to him. I would make his worse days like living in a bad neighborhood. Later threw the years I finally realized why he was so strict with me and my sisters. It showed me how life is

“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9). Through all generations of my family leading up to today, my family, on my mother and father’s sides, all practice the same faith. All of my family is Catholic, most of my friends growing up were catholic, and everywhere I looked, my faith was an important part of my life. I went to private school for nine years; the same one many of my cousins and my siblings attended. All of the people around me when I was a child prayed and worshiped like I was taught to do. They were the ones that influenced me to go deeper into my faith. Through the daily religion classes and weekly masses, to the teachers and priest that influenced my morals and values, I look back on those days as times I cherish. I had learned to open my heart and let others in to take a part in my life. I set boundaries for myself to be a respectful person and keep my faith. And most importantly, I am a life worth living as we are all made from the same image of God. Private school is the reason I am the person I have grown to be today and I will become tomorrow.

When i was younger i always believed that i would have the ideal family. Unfortunately that changed the moment when my mom and and dad got a divorce. At that time i was 10 years old, i didn't really understand what was going on but i knew it wasn't good. The reason they were getting a divorce was because my mom found out that my dad was having an affair.

My parents were teenagers when they got married. It was puppy love, and they felt forced to be married before I enter the world so that they wouldn’t embarrass my grandparents. My mother, Heather, was twenty-one years old when she gave birth to me in 1991. I had no issues as an infant, and I was a healthy baby. However, at two months old, I got salmonella poisoning because my father cleaned my bottles near raw chicken. I spent some time in the hospital until I was healthy. I came home from the hospital, and my mom and dad were getting adapted to taking care of a new infant. At three months old, my mother decided that she and my father were no longer meant to be together and had rushed into marriage to soon. She decided to get a divorce, and it was finalized by the time I was the age of one year old. Shortly after the divorce, my mother met Stephen, and my dad met Dawn. These two people were introduced into my life at a young age, and eventually played the stepparents role in my life. I resided in Buzzards Bay at my grandparent’s house after the divorce. I lived with my grandparents, my mother, and my aunt. My grandparents played a huge role in raising me. Nana helped raise me. She would watch me most of the time as my mother worked two jobs as a young single parent to make sure she took care of my needs and me. From ages 0-7, I was an only child. I was an advanced toddler because my playmates were primarily adults. At one year old, I was talking in complete sentences and I

I decided to do this over family because we all know at one point in time we have taken for granted the parents we have or the happy moments of family. Family is very important to me because I got experience so much because of them. My brother is a big part of my life, he helped me be the person I am. He coming into my life made it so I could see the world differently.

Love and friendships- My first friendship was one i am still been with for almost 15 years and growing up with him is like having a brother in another family. We would always go and listen to music and fool around, my first time coming into the U.S i already had someone to be around. When his oldest brother died i was still brand new here. It was still very tragic and even though me and him didn't know his brother as much it was difficult to believe it happened. The thing i most admire about friendship is that if you are that much close like brothers you can tell each other almost any deep dark secrets, being close to someone who is almost similar as you is the best thing about being in a friendship. It always helps being friends with someone you can trust.

As early as I can remember my grandparents, whom my sisters and I called Mum and Pa were and are the most important people in my life. I have two sisters, my twin Kristine and my younger sister Debbie. I don’t have many memories of my dad and the one’s I do recall aren’t really nice ones, he was an alcoholic who wasn’t home much and when he was my mother and him would argue and end with him hitting her. Growing up I always felt that my mom favored my twin Kristine (not much as changed) and that my father favored Debbie, so where did this leave me. We lived in a suburban city and most days and nights my mother worked second and third shifts, probably so she wasn’t home when our father returned late at night drunk. My parent’s situation left the three of us alone quite often if it wasn’t for our amazing grandparents. Similar to the way I felt about the favoritism being shown was the same way my sisters felt about the relationship I had with our grandparents. The numerous occasions I ran away from home to a phone booth to call my grandfather to come get me, staying at their house for days just being happy and feeling special. We didn’t live in the best houses, I remember one home that used to be my fathers aunt and uncles house when we walked home from school with friends they would want to know what house and at first my sister and I would just say “oh it’s down there”. Finally, when I was in seventh grade my mother left our dad and we moved in with my grandparents.

Our parents are very hard-working people. Our parents both work day and nights. They embody the “American Dream”. .My father was always hustling and bustling whether it was in the states or overseas. So, he was not as much a part of my brother and I’s childhood as we had hoped. My mother, on the other hand, took the role of dual-parenting and took care of us at home. Though, she was also busy clocking in and out. We made the most of our time together and they were the most memorable moments. At the end of the day, life treated my brother and I really well. With that, our parents could not leave us to fend for ourselves at home alone--me being three years old with a younger brother and all. But,. growing up, my brother and I spent our childhood with one of our close cousin, ‘tina’s, grandmother. She had a special nickname, “Meema”, that everyone knew her by.

Granddad I blame you, I blame you for everything that had happened to our family year. I blame you for all the heartbreak and the tears that my family had cried. You were supposed to be the “head” of our family but, no you let me down, you let every family member down. I have been holding in these feelings for years but you are getting older and so am I. I’m trying to forgive you. I want to forgive you, but first I need to explain to you what you did to me.

I like to describe myself as a bubbly person; I am definitely a glass half full kind of girl; I love sunny days, the color pink, and peppy songs. At the same time I love pretty much anything girly, working with kids, history, reading, animals, hair, makeup, and talking about the Bible. My family has always discussed everything, and I guess that's where my love of discussing things comes from. I am the oldest of five kids and have two brothers, and two sisters. Mckinley is 15, Savanna is 13, Lincoln is 11, and Abel is 4. I have been homeschooled my entire life and enjoy a close relationship with my siblings and parents. My Dad is a state farm agent, but he spends his extra time studying hebrew, and my Mom is a full time homeschool mom and wife/super woman extraordinaire. We live in Davenport, Iowa right on the mississippi river.

For me, having a big family is a lifetime full of love, happiness, and struggles. One out of the three most magnificent moments of my life, my kids and I were playing at the park and that's when I experienced love at first sight with a man named Paul. He had three daughters with him that were instant friends with my two sons. This was the day where my family grew from three to seven. I remember the very certain day in January since it is going to be our first anniversary this upcoming year of 2018. After a break up with my kid's father, I thought I'd never find a man that would love my two kids and I. Every day, I asked my grandmother, who I called Nana, up in heaven if she could send a good man my way to love and cherish my kid's and I, and then one day my she answered my prayer. When my spouse and his daughters came into my life, they filled the hole that was missing from my heart when my Nana passed away and my life felt like I was back to normal. His daughters are the little girls I always had wanted because I tied my tubes after my second son was born so I am not able to have any more children. My family of seven started in 2012 with my firstborn son, Shane.

In the beginning there was a happy family with two sweet kids. This family is my family.

I was born and grew up in Ethiopia, moving to America three years ago. Ethiopia is one of the traditional country where most of the population and the economy rely on agriculture. I was born in small rural town called Akaki in the southern part of Addis Ababa City. My family depends on agriculture, my parents grow crops like teff, barley, hard wheat and sorghum, which is the common ingredients for our day to day meal. The production of these crops takes place in traditional farming. I am the youngest kid in my family, that means I am free from any responsibilities in my culture my older siblings do most of the things in our family. I spent most of the time playing with my friends. Everyone in my family loves me. If something happens with in our family, the oldest one are accountable and responsible, even I am a young and grown guy, this thing makes me lazy and spoiled person.

The despairing faces and the exhilarating emotions that overwhelm the room as I think back to how irrational life can be. I notice their hands were reluctantly raised to answer a simple math problem that I had written on the board. Looking around, I have never seen such fragile students that are eager to learn but afraid to speak. However, these are the same students who helped me realize how important it was for me to be in that room. A star that shined bright, guiding the helpless voyagers to shore. I always thought life was linear , where everything increased at a constant slope, but that is definitely not the case. Thinking about the many unexpected turns it can take and how it places laborious weight on a person's decisions and responsibilities My life can be summarized from the last four years, from the beginning of high school to now. I always caught myself walking the halls contemplating my purpose in life and why I felt so incomplete. Until finally, everything fell into place, learning what my heart cared for the most and what and who I wanted to be now. Math has always been something that defines me. Going from being a normal student to a math tutor, it really shows me my own capabilities and limits.