Adopted at birth, my mom died when I was starting kindergarten. Dad remarried quickly and brought my brother and me a sister who is the same age as me. Stepmom was dreadful in just about every way. Dad never stood up to her but he should have. He died when I was a teenager and we were kicked out of the house. We went to live with our sister and her dad who took us in. After rebelling, skipping lots of school and making plenty of bad choices I graduated from high school…finally. I don’t know what happened to my stepmom and I haven’t found my birth parents.
After a less than fairytale childhood I finally started college at twenty-one. Since I worked in a restaurant for so many years, I thought I wanted to own one but got involved in a mentoring organization which quickly shifted my focus to working with kids.