Aaron's Story

How do you forget the smell of bacon, eggs, and whiskey?

Bacon, eggs, and whiskey used to smell like a beating when I was a kid. My dad was a cook at a restaurant and would come home late at night sometimes to beat my mom and older brother, and sometimes me. One day he just left and we were all alone. I felt abandoned, alone, and relieved, all at the same time.

After dad left, mom worked all the time and we never had enough money. One day mom came home and seemed happy again. Several months later she told us that she had met a nice man at her new job, and we spent a lot of time together. After they got married, we went to live with him and he sat us down one night and told us that he wanted to adopt us and be our father. It was a lot of work to go see a judge, and make the adoption happen. My counselor at Kinship House helped us understand what was going to happen and helped us to understand our feelings and how to control them. Both my brother and I were happy to have new memories and a new family.