TWENTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD ASHLEY RHODES-COURTER WROTE THIS BOOK AS A PIECE OF HER PAST AND ALSO TO THANK THOSE WHO HELPED HER AND STEP UP FOR CHILD WELFARE.

The book cover shows Alice wearing her Halloween costume; an angel costume with puffed sleeves and wings strapped on her back with a gold harness made by Adele, her grandfather’s wife.

SUMMARY

Ashley was born in North Carolina. She was born to a seventeen-year-old single mom. According to her, two days compete for the worst day in her life: the first is the day she was taken from her mother; the second is the day she arrived at the Moss´ foster home four years later. The day she was taken from her mother, she had left South Carolina bound for Florida with her mother, her mother´s husband, and her younger brother Luke. She was only three years old. Before she was taken from her mother, she was an intuitive two-year-old, soaking up language and behaviors from a crew of rowdy adolescents who were trying on adult attitudes and habits. She used to get attention by acting grown up. Her mother used to spend her time hanging out with friends, while her sister was taking care of Ashley. After her mother got pregnant with Luke, everything changed for Ashley. Dusty, her mother´s husband was abusing her mother, physically and emotionally. Once he almost hit Ashley with a chair. Ashley´s mom was about to leave Dusty many times but she never did because she was afraid of him.
After the day Ashley was taken from her mother, she never was given back to her. Ashley spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes. She was always waiting for her mom to come back and take her back to South Carolina. Ashley’s mom suffered from addition problems with drugs. The government always said that she was not able to take care of Ashley and Luke. While Ashley was waiting for her mother, she had to be in different foster homes with many different people who did not care about them. The worst foster home was the Moss´ home. Mrs. Moss was a cruel woman; she used to give hot sauce to the kids whenever they did not obey her. Mrs. Moss took away the gifts that Ashley´s mom gave her. She also used to make them share their outfits with the other foster girls. Many times Ashley and the other foster kids who lived there tried to let to the social workers know what Mrs. Moss was doing to them, that she was abusing physically and emotionally of them, but they did not believe them. Ashley finally got out of that foster home, because supposedly she was not a good influence to the other kids, not because it was a bad place for her. After that, Ashley went to another house where things were much better. Unfortunately Luke had to stay in Mrs. Moss’ foster home. During those years, Ashley saw her mother a few times. She always told her that she was about to finish the process to get her back to home. However there was something that stopped her from getting Ashley back. At the age of twelve, she was adopted by the Courters ´family who were the only ones who helped her and loved her.

A DISGUISTING SCENE

I hate mystery casseroles. When Mrs. Moss spooned out a fishy mixture, I pleaded as cutely as possible, “May o pretty please have a bowl of cereal instead?”
“Well, okay,” Mrs. Moss said with a sly grin. She poured a meager portion of Lucky Charms into a plastic bowl, and then she rummaged in the refrigerator for a gallon of milk. It poured thickly with some chunks plopping into the bowl, and I carried it outside to the little plastic table where the kids usually ate our meals. It sloshed on the table as I set it down.
Luke said longingly, “I wish I had some.”
The first swallow made me gag. I ran to the hose and rinsed out my mouth. When I cam e back from to the table, Luke was shoveling the cereal in his mouth as fast as he could.
“Luke! That is disgusting!”
“It´s yummy in my tummy!”
Nausea overwhelmed me. I rushed toward the house, AS usual, the door was bolted. I banged on it. Mr. Moss came to the door holding his napkin.
“Gotta go!” I blurted. AS I rushed toward the bathroom, my stomach lurched. A flume of vomit arched onto the floor.
“You´ve ruined the carpet!” Mrs. Moss screeched. She gripped my hair and pushed my face into the puke. I don´t know what was worse: the taste of the curdled milk, watching Luke eat the sickening concoction, vomiting, being humiliated, smelling my mess up close, or having to clean it up, which I couldn´t do to her satisfaction. Later, as the sour smell lingered, Mrs. Moss reminded everyone that it had been my fault as made me stand in the corner.

195 PEOPLE!!

“Before I went to college, I packed the boxes that pertained to my foster care history. When I reviewed the spreadsheet that listed everyone in South Carolina and Florida who had been responsible for my case, I was amazed by how many people were. I counted:

73 child welfare administrators
44 child welfare caseworkers
19 foster parents
23 attorneys
17 psychologists, psychiatrists, and therapists
5 Guardian ad Litem staff
4 judges
4 court personnel
3 abuse registry workers
2 primary caseworkers
1 Guardian ad Litem

Out of these 195 people, only Mary Miller and Martha Cook were unpaid volunteers- yet they are the two people who made the greatest difference in my life.”
(Page 296)

Nearly two hundred people were paid to protect the rights of Ashley, who only worked under the interest of making money. Out of those people, only two were helping foster kids because they were concerned about the future of those children.
Many of the people who work helping foster kids are doing it only because that´s their job and not because they really want to help those kids who are in need of people who feel the need of helping them.

WHY THREE LITTLE WORDS?

At the age of 12, the unexpected happened. Or as Ashley’s award-winning essay describes it: “three little words.”

“I guess so.”

That was her answer to the question: “Would you like to make this adoption permanent?”

After nine years of emotional torture, abuse, and suffering, Ashley was given a second chance at normalcy by a couple of Florida “empty nesters,” Gay and Phil Courter, a best-selling novelist and a documentary screenplay writer, respectively.

They were working on a film addressing the different techniques used to find children permanent homes in the U.S. Ashley auditioned and was cast, sharing her story publicly for the first time.
Ashley went from living in a small, overcrowded trailer, to sharing a spacious waterfront home with only her adoptive parents.

( Some information from: http://www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=ashley_rhodescourter_brick07)