We all can remember, as a child, how we would daydream. I remember how I would sit and dream of growing up. I would wonder: would I be tall? Would I be skinny? Would I marry? Where will I live? Would I be rich or poor? Daydreams were an escape from what real life was like. Looking back, I realize that survival was the goal of life, living in a poor neighborhood and an abusive, dysfunctional family. As a family, we worked through many problems to simply survive. As an adult, all of our family members paid an emotional price, and some physical prices for surviving our childhood. I give God the praise for helping my siblings and me. God gave us the strength and the spiritual awareness to overcome the pitfalls that were placed in our life.

There were many who would never make it out of the mindset of defeat. Together, as siblings pledging to always be there to help each other, no matter what, we would make it out of what should have been our destiny to live as our parents did in poverty and sin. Our destiny and legacy for our own children could have been very different. This is the story of my family and how each of us found our way through life and found our destiny.