Before the escape

Niels's picture

The escape took place on August 12th 1989, which happened to be a Saturday. The day before that I had returned from holidays. I had been to France with a friend of mine. Now that had been a first time for me. Up till then I had only spent the holidays with my parents, but that time around I had managed to have holidays just for me. This I had deserved.

In mid June of that same year my parents had forced me to go on holidays with them. I was not allowed to stay in their house (how can you call a place home if it isn't your house), didn't have another place to stay, I saw no other option to go along, but under protest. I managed to stay in a foul mood for three fucking long weeks.

It was so horrible, yet I had my vicious little revenge, so delicate, so rewarding I can still feel the sheer joy undermining their power over me. I had one great fortune.

I had someone to write to, a friend whom I had already disclosed quite a few things to. He actually was the first person I did disclose anything to. Until I spoke up to him, my address had been too private to share with anyone. So I had my wicked escape from the daily agony and I added to it big time. I was annoying, ill tempered like I hadn't been before. I was making sure they would have Holidays from Hell.

Every day I wrote this friend of mine a long letter, dripping from sarcasm and that was my reward, I felt I had someone to share the agony with and that made me feel strong.

After having returned from holidays this friend of mine and I decided it a good idea to go on holidays later that summer and so we did. We booked and I informed my parents we were going. I didn't ask, I didn't suggest I just told them I was going to do this. I hadn't before been so firm and it worked, they didn't object.

Now how did I get so bold?

Something had happened just a few months before that, something that had so much engrossed me I still have a hard time thinking back.

My mother had been a hypochondriac for years, ever since the age of twelve or so, ever since she stopped taking Librium I guess. Every fucking single day she metastasized her fear of cancer. Every single day coming home from school (I stopped telling them the exact roster when I was fourteen, I always had long days at school)

I figured what it would be this time. Usually it was cancer in the throat she was afraid of and she would be begging and begging to look at it and say it would be nothing. From the first time she ever asked this of me I had said no to it. It didn't feel appropriate, it felt downright incestuous.

She didn't take no for an answer, she never did and often I had enough strength to put my foot down till it was late enough for my father to return home and do his obligation as a husband, give in to the bitch and do as she pleased. Look her in the throat and say it was nothing.

I couldn't not just for the incestuous atmosphere surrounding it, I couldn't because it wasn't proper of me to say it was nothing. I am not a doctor, never was a doctor and I'll never be a doctor. I am not the one to say it is nothing.

Every now and then there just was no escaping. My mother would be in a state of total panic, screaming, shooting, crying and crawling over the floor like a beast in terror. And she would have that look in her eyes saying: you are betraying me. I tried not to give, my god have I tried not to give in, but sometimes I couldn't and I knew that would give her the fuel to come for  more next time and there always was next time.

I never told her it was nothing. I would always say: "I don't see anything special, but I am not a doctor. If you want to know for sure, go see a doctor". But I gave in to the looking part.

This went on for close to ten years. I was disgusted by my mother and I hated my father for catering to her every whim. He was sustaining the situation not putting his foot down. On top of that he would lash out on me when things got too much for him to handle. Hitting me, uncontrolled like a raving mad man.

It never hurt, the hitting, surprisingly it never hurt and fortunately it didn't happen so often, but even once was once too many.

I guess he needed to release, but didn't want to hurt me at the same time, I don't know.

That stopped when I was seventeen, I had grown into a boy way taller than the old man. The two of us were in the garage working on something stupid together. Now that is something we just should never have been doing in the first place. Working on something always turned into argument, 'cause I want to find out how to do things myself and he had firm rules about how things were supposed to be done. I'd be stubborn, he'd be annoyed...

That one time in the garage I can still see so vividly, I was lying on the hood of the car and his arms were flailing. I had my arms in front of my eyes, so he could not accidentally hit me there, but far enough from my eyes so I could look at him. I wanted to see him in all his raging anger. I looked at him, and kept thinking: "oh man, what do you think you're doing. What in fuck's name do you think you're doing".

I was completely calm. I knew I could easily hit him and I considered doing it. No... I thought it over, 'cause I knew I wasn't going to do that. I don't lower my standards for anyone and I don't hit, I refuse, but I realized I could just hit him, good and well. I was in the position to do so. I had the physical strength to easily do so.

That moment I felt him getting the message. He stopped and never hit me again. As a matter of fact no one has ever hit me again; no one dares anymore. I've got this twisted little mantra it goes something like: I'd break you every bone to prevent violence. I've used and even abused this power later on in life, but I digress.

Then one day I returned to the house, by then I was already 23 still living with them and my mother was in one of her worst phases of hypochondria. This time around it wasn't cancer to her throat though but cancer to the labia. I never thought you could get cancer there, but then again, my mother was very creative finding new places to attract cancer. I must grant her that talent.

So I refused even discussing the issue. She didn't take no for an answer. She started begging. I refused. She started sobbing. I refused. She started crying. I refused. She started screaming. I refused. I knew it was going to be a long session there, I got to the house early that day and that was never a good idea. So it lasted and lasted, she turned more and more in to a beast. She hunted me down the house and finally had me where she wanted me, in her bedroom.

She showed me her labia. I didn't want to look. I refused to look. She insisted. I refused. She kept insisting, begging, screaming, hissing, "you're engrossed by me, are you?" Yes I was, but I couldn't say it. And then I looked. But that wasn't enough. She wanted me to feel. It sickened me. I refused. She begged. I refused. She screamed. I refused. And then I touched her as short as possible, just to get it over with. Now that wasn't good enough I had to feel. So I touched once more again as short as possible. She could make me touch, but she couldn't make me feel  And then it stopped. My father got home and he took care of business.

Sometime later, I can't recall when. Not if I had already moved out or not  It must have been, given the bedroom. I'm just not sure. Anyway it happened once again, this time around not her labia, but her anus. I can't recall the build up. All I recall is her sitting on the bed as if she wanted me to fuck her doggy style. That's what I felt. That's all I remember of that occasion.

It was worse than the time before, because I had so much promised myself  never to give in anymore and I did. I've felt shame. I've felt hate to her, to me. I have not even told my therapist at the time about that occasion, I completely "forgot". It felt so much as if I had betrayed myself. I do remember I didn't touch, or did I? I don't know, I got it blocked out and it's not returning spontaneously. But at least she had me cornered once again. She had me look again.

Comments

[shudder]

God, Niels

it's a wonder you don't hate all women after that experience. 

I think I know how my friend felt after he read my story.  He said he just wanted to crawl into a fetal position.
But after he got beyond that, he said he was really moved and inspired by what I've overcome.

I, too, am moved and inspired by what you've overcome. 
And I'm glad we're not speaking to each other through prison bars. 
And that we have this place to meet, share, and comfort one another.

I'm at a loss for words

I'm at a loss for words, Niels, but overwhelmed with feelings of embarrassment, anger, and disgust for the people who were supposed to be your mom and dad.

Had I my own words, they would look and sound something like this:

I, too, am moved and inspired by what you've overcome. 
And I'm glad we're not speaking to each other through prison bars. 
And that we have this place to meet, share, and comfort one another.

I just need to sit with this for a while.

Dad

It's just nice to know that

It's just nice to know that I was not the only to experience this thing called "Adoption" in the manner I have. I share my story regularly.. as I have no shame in it myself... the people who included me in these screwed up situations are fully to blame.... But no often do people share their personal experiences.. for what ever reason... I understand... Thank you for doing that here... The more people share about adoption foster care etc etc.. the more the truth will overshadow the lies and the pretty ribbons these corporate arseholes wrapped around it to make it commercial and more profitable....

The truth will set us free..... I hope... Perhaps at best we can hope when others read our stories and go to do screwed up stuff to us "IN-need" children they will realize it will come to the surface as the truth tends to do... no matter how much money is thrown over top to cover it..  I would rather live with my "Abusive" parents for eternity then to spend one day living with strangers who bought me or  "Took me in"  Again thanks.. :)

Abuse is

Abuse is, essentially, a mind fuck.

Adoption is also a mind fuck.

Forget all you knew.  Forget who you are. That was the past.   Stop crying. It doesn't matter anymore. From this day forward, you are new.  You are mine now.  Forever.  i LOVE YOU.  Stop that fucking crying.  Give me some love back.  Now.  Please.  And while you're at it, this is unacceptable. And that is unacceptable.  Here, WE do this.  We do that.  Now you've got it.  Now I love you.  Why aren't you smiling?  Don't you love me?  Love me. Now.  Please.  Please.  PLEASE!  NOW!  Look at all I'm doing for you!  Stop doing that.  Shhhhh...Stop crying.  Forget, forget, forget.  Me, I'm here.  That's all that matters. 

ANDY

Andy was a foster child who came to me the day after his mother died; he was 6 years old.  We would sit up till midnight and I would just listen to him talk.  He needed me to reassure him that his mommy had existed and all his memories were real.  Andy needed to grieve his loss. 
Did anyone ever just listen while you grieved?  It's what I would have wanted. 
He was so easy to love.  I knew his biological dad as I had worked for Andy's real grandma for years... isn't life strange...  Andy looked and walked just like his dad, so I called and told them who I had in foster care.  Andy's dad had a wife who didn't know about him, but she found him very easy to love, too.  Andy finally went to live with his real dad and was a very happy boy.   I just wanted to add a little positive here.

One Step Up From Bottom,
Teddy

faith and belief

I think that was a really beautiful story.... it shows how powerful faith and belief in human-kindness can exist, even if it comes from "outside of family".

What made the story so beautiful was, Andy got to go home.

Longing

Andy was the only foster child I would have liked to have kept...  but when he told me he had a dad, and what that dad's name was, I knew it was the truth.  Just looking at him was enough proof for me.  I told his aunt first and took him for a visit.  When she saw him she just opened her mouth and sorta gasped a breath.  I then called his dad and explained the situation and he was a little shocked because he really didn't know about Andy.  I then called DHS and told them that Andy had a biological dad in town.  They ran DNA testing and it was over 99 % positive.  They started visits and then went to court to get custody of him.  I saw Andy many times as he grew up and never once saw him unhappy.  His dad was not my pick for a good family for Andy, but he was the right/real one and it certainly worked out fine for all of them. 
Andy's half brothers and sisters got to continue in his life.  Andy was the youngest and the product of an affair.  His real mother's parents made sure they all stayed a family, which included Andy's real dad and step-mother; plus a wonderful half sister he gained when he found his dad.  His mother had made sure he knew who his real dad was... GOD made sure Andy went to a foster home that would find his real family for him.  That was me.

keeping the sweetness

The more you share, the more I like this story, but I have to be truthful, something you wrote really hit me in a way I'm not sure I can explain (but I'm sure other adoptees would understand my <shudder>....)

Andy was the only foster child I would have liked to have kept... 

It's obvious to me, you saw a longing sweetness in him.  Is that why you wanted to keep him?

 

Survivor

Andy's mommy was dead.... he would have been free to adopt;  and he was such a special child; he was a total survivor and if you would have known him you would have wanted to reach out and keep him, too.  He was so familiar to me: the things he said and did were just like he came from my family, if I had had a family.  His old fashioned ways and his ability to open up with his pain and needs made it so easy to know him.  But I KNEW his family, because that's the way it was supposed to be; I was supposed to be part of his homecoming.
All the other foster children were placed in my home TEMPORARILY and I knew this from day one.  The parents were in the picture with visits and were sorta doing what needed to be done to get them back. 
Andy was different in that his mommy was dead.  His Maternal grandparents hoped that we would adopt him right from day one, but when he told me a week later who his dad was, I knew I had to do the right thing. 
Kerry, you have biological children so you look at this differently than I do/did.  But I understand that and only hope that my explanation helps you to see it from my point, then and now. 
The other children were bonded to their parents; Andy had been/was bonded to his deceased mommy.  How could I have wanted to keep the others?  I didn't.  Andy was, at first, available, with his family's blessing, but his unknown dad/family was made known and so that's where he needed to go. BUT that did not stop my first feelings for him... I can not start and stop my emotions that easily.  With NO bitterness I helped him settle into his new home.... but the love I felt for him stayed and was very warm down through the years.  When he saw me, he would always come over with a big smile and greet me; we had shared a lot from the first days/nights after his real mommy died.
Does this make sense to you?

One Step Up From Bottom,
Teddy

Wanting to keep

"Andy was different because he mother was dead", and yet how many adoptees are told they are orphans?  [This is an industry-issue, not addressed to you... but surely you can appreciate how lies and deceit change the sort of grief a child can/does experience when living with "strangers".]

if you would have known him you would have wanted to reach out and keep him, too.  He was so familiar to me: the things he said and did were just like he came from my family, if I had had a family.

I'm sorry, but helping a child and keeping that same child are two different things. [So you can imagine how glad I am Andy got to go home, and yes, you helped make that possible.  Andy was lucky to have a foster mother who understood her role and duty to another parent's child.  I wonder how many can say they do the same, when adoption is the goal for so many.]

Meanwhile, I'm still stuck on the "keeping" issue.  Even my own children, I don't get to keep.  [For instance, after 40 weeks of pregnancy, I had to birth, proving all things have a beginning and an end.  With each developmental milestone, there is a loss and a gain... so nothing keeps and remains.] 

Instead of "keeping", I have developed an an appreciation for "staying".

I guess that says a lot about our own family experiences.

Keeping or Staying...

Now I understand what you are saying.  I guess how you say it is better than my word, keep.  I watched so many children come and go that Andy became the one who made me feel there could be a child to stay/keep.  My word "keep" is, of course, a trigger for adopted children/adults,  and I'm sorry for using it so blatantly.  It's a word I learned from foster parents/adoptive parents as I was also in that mode of wanting a child but not biologically.  I can see how "keep" can mean something very negative to you and I will learn from your honesty. 
You're right, we do NOT get to keep our children, and at the very first (1980's)  I really had the "keep" mentality.  NOW, I know different and can see how my language must change and not be offensive.  That's why I'm here. 
The reality of the beginning and the ending in life, over and over, is finally sinking in to me.  It is the reason why I choose to "end" the relationship with a man who destroyed instead of participating  in the "staying period" of my children.
I will learn the appreciation of the "staying."  I do appreciate the time you take to teach me what I don't know but DESPERATELY need to know. 

One Step Up From Bottom,
Teddy

captive audience

I believe as an AP you are beginning to see how adult-oriented the "language of adoption" has become.  Sadly, I don't think there are nearly enough people seeing how adoption feeds into the adult needs of family-ownership, versus the needs of so many lost and lonely children.  [Your reply to Adoption Anxiety, "From My Experience" is proof to me that so much needs to be discussed about the wanting needs and motivations behind child placement through International Adoption!]

I'm hoping open discussions like this can help better explain why so many angry adoptees do relate to adoption as being a form of slavery (with or without a sex-act being a duty to prove love and loyalty) and why/how many relate to an experience like The Stockholm Syndrome, as mentioned here:  http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/11588.

Perhaps, if we can piece together the life-experiences of many, better standards in abuse prevention, adoption practice and child safety can finally be established.

[Dare we dream?] 

 

If it wasn't for the small

If it wasn't for the small little good things people do in foster care for children... there would be none at all... it's the good people sitting amongst the rest of them doing good things  ... bending rules.... even breaking them if it means helping a child they have... but  the good people in their are like trying to plug a hole in a dam with peas... But again if not for the few good things people did for me while I was in care... I would have seen none at all...

Teddy, what you did... that was awesome...
It's the little things that make a difference... as they pave the road for the big things to happen...

" "keep" is, of course, a trigger for adopted children/adults,  and I'm sorry for using it so blatantly."

 Not a bother to me I am at the other end of the spectrum where I was adopted and given back so many times I am desensitized to it. Like I live with the fact i have no idea who's last name I have everyday.. if it's a trigger for some they need to find out why and deal with it. I know that sounds harsh.. but... coming from me you should know I don't mean as such... just i don't know how to be ....polite... they don't teach that in foster care..

:)

How alike we are...

Bizzi, when I read your words, "When I came to, I can not even describe what it was like... I am not sure how.. it was a rude awakening.. there were no words in my head... it was just blank.... but I was aware... I Remember laying on the ground alone cold... and scared,"     it has so much meaning for me...   When the police came and took my three little kids (my 13 YO C.P./M.R. child went out naked), I had a like-experience that changed my life.  Not the same, but still brought the same results.
It was a rude awakening!  I truly believe God only lets us sink so far or else we'd all be dead by now.  Thank you so much for sharing your life; it meant a lot to me.
Andy was/is a great young man who deserved a break and got one; he went on to college and is doing good.  It's the people that go into foster care to adopt and not to make a difference in a child's life that cause a lot of problems in that child's life.  Most of them demand that the child take sides against their own family and confuse the child when they should be reinforcing the reunification policy.  Did that happen to you?  Foster parents want full loyalty from their foster children.  How cruel.
I have needed to desensitize myself to some extent to be here and learn.  Once I stopped taking things so personally I was able to learn more.  With you, it is a way of life that was forced on you by cruel people who could not see beyond your self-preservation (JMO).  For you to be able to say kind words to me only shows me there is a lot more of that deep down that no one had the pleasure of experiencing from you.  You made my day... thanks.

One Step Up From Bottom,
Teddy

What I was told about my

What I was told about my parents was so cold... the things that were said to me by so many about them ...you just don't say to children... yeah they turned me against my family... and they succeeded... they totally brain washed me.... I was 9 so it wasn't hard but over the years they brainwashed me so badly ..by the time I was 13 I hated my family but when you teach kids hate it just keeps growing..... by the time I was 14 I hated everyone... and my juvenile criminal recored reflected that... then I hit the streets... where I meet kind people for the first time and a drunkin wino took the time and taught me how to read and write... not a teacher not a foster parents not a social worker.. but a bum...... and my hate turned from being towards everyone... to just the upper-class as they are 100% responsible... for what happened to me and hundreds of thousands of us and to this day refuse to admit what they are doing... and continue to subject innocent (poor) children to in the name of their screwed up opinions... I just feel sorry for the good people who get sucked into this thinking they are doing good things... then find out the only good thing that happens is what they make happen themselves ...like what you did... had you not help Andy he could have experienced the same as I. The good you did prevented that.

That deserves respect in my books. People always ask me why i am so grumpy all the time...

You ever hear the story about the mouse and the lion?

So Familiar

I was a foster parent for 4 1/2 years before going overseas to adopt, thinking it would be different.  It was no different. 
The foster care program is like every other political game, it's all about scratching someone else's back to get yours
scratched.  And most families do not have the ability to figure out the game before it's too late and their children are
lost in the system.
The way you reacted   "...and my juvenile criminal recored reflected that.."  is proof of what you lost:  your family and a
way of life you were born to have.  I learned a lot as a foster parent and the first thing was:  Play your cards right and
you'll get to "keep" this one.  There's that word keep, again.  I did NOT want to keep them (except Andy for the first
week until I knew who his dad was/is). 
I learned the game of "foster care" and saw the many biological parents and how they just could not play this game and therefore lost their children.  I know for fact it is corrupt.
One other foster child I would like to mention here:
Kelly was five and her sister was three when they came to live with us; after having been in and out of several homes
before mine.  When Kelly was eight, I knew I could not adopt her and her sister like the department wanted us to.  I
remember the day they went to the PAP's home with her sister and how empty I felt inside, not having made a positive
difference in their lives. 
That home adopted those girls and I never forgot their names and what town they were from.  Five years ago I met the bio mother in a WalMart not too far from here and she told me how she had changed her life around and it was evident she was telling the truth. 
She was searching for her adult girls.  I told her the information I knew because at that point I KNEW she/they
deserved to know.  She finally found them within that  year and Kelly came to live with them; her sister was in a
group home in Texas somewhere.  She had a 6 year old son with her and a baby that was in Mexico with the dad.
I went to Kelly's son's birthday party and learned her story, after leaving my home.  She was adopted by people who
were drinkers and pot smokers (so what was so wrong with her OWN family?) where the mother died and the dad
molested Kelly and smoked pot with her and the other adopted son, who molested her also.  She had gotten pregnant
and left for Texas (south of here) where she had another baby who is with the father.
Her life was destroyed in that adoptive home that had been FULLY LICENSED and INSPECTED! 
There was NO reason to keep her from her own family where the grandparents wanted those two girls but were denied. 
I live with this horror as I was a part of that travesty.  But I will remind myself that I did call those grandparents and helped them get visits; I even got pictures from them to send with the girls, that got thrown away at the adoptive home.  But what more SHOULD I have done?
I feel, now, there could have been more done while they were still here in my home.  The grandparents paid for
the lawyer so their daughter could fight the Termination of Parental Rights, twice (the state pays for one) and they
lost all three times.  I know these people and they are NOT bad, awful, horrible people!  They are decent people who
could have saved Kelly and her sister a lot of heartache.  I did not turn the girls against their mother, but I will say
the mother didn't have a chance since the DHS sabotaged every effort she made which made her look bad to her
daughters.  I was in the middle the whole time and soon got out of foster care after I watched the mean things the
DHS did to 12 children that I cared for in 4 1/2 years.  Andy was the one that made me get out of foster care and go
over seas to adopt... but if you are a reader of my posts you can see that it's all just the same thing only worse.
Because of you and several others here who see my need of help, here, I have come a long way; there is still a
long way to go.  I do care.

One Step Up From Bottom,
Teddy