Walking on Eggshells: Discovering Strength and Courage Amid Chaos

Walking on Eggshells: Discovering Strength and Courage Amid Chaos by Lyssa Chapman Read Free Book Online

Book: Walking on Eggshells: Discovering Strength and Courage Amid Chaos by Lyssa Chapman Read Free Book Online
Authors: Lyssa Chapman
I could now get away with things I would never have dreamed of a few short months ago.
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    By the time I returned from Pastor Jeremiah’s to Dad and Ginny, school was out for the summer and he had moved us to another house. Ginny’s son, Andy, had not made the move, though. Because Dad was so concerned about the possibility of Child Protective Services taking his children, he and Ginny arranged for her son to live with his dad in California. I had nowhere else to go,so I was the only child living there. Also, I was Baby Lyssa. I was Dad’s baby girl and I never went too far from him.
    That summer I didn’t see much of Dad. He was either busy with his business, or busy with Ginny. I was left to pretty much fend for myself. With no one paying attention to household chores, conditions soon became so bad that there was little food, no clean clothes or dishes, and maggots flourished in the dishwasher. Yes, maggots. Dad was horrified when I pointed them out to him, and he and Ginny made a brief attempt to clean the place up.
    I also did what I could to keep our home tidy, but I was still only eight. On the cleaning front I swept up what must have been thousands of maggots from that house. I remember watching them curl themselves up into the dustpan before I threw them out the back door. For meals, one dish Dad liked that I could make was scrambled eggs. I often made them for him and Ginny, but I always seemed to choose a time to cook when Dad was so high that he was uninterested in eating. There was only so much I could do, or in fact, even knew to do.
    I did know, however, that life was supposed to be better. I had seen glimpses of this in the way my classmates dressed and acted. I had also overheard snatches of conversations about what life was like for them. Every human has basic survival instincts, and over the next few months mine kicked in big time. Somehow I knew that I had to eat regularly and get enough rest. But the fact that I was left to my own devices, and that it was summer and I had no friends to play with, opened the door to the next step of my descent.

Four
    ★

Molester or Friend?
    I t is a sad fact that many children fall through the cracks. When it comes to abuse of any kind it is important that parents recognize signs such as lying, stealing, and a sudden drop in grades. I look closely for these signs in my children and guarantee any warning sign will not go unnoticed. I do this through supervision. Unlike my parents did with me, I know at all times where my daughters are, who they are with, and what they are watching or listening to. Close supervision also makes it hard for abusers to find vulnerable children, or for those kids to fall through the cracks.
    This is more important now than ever, as kids these days are exposed to far more references to sex and drugs in music and commercials than they were even a decade ago. I do my best to protect my daughters from some of that by limiting what theyare exposed to. That’s why my ten-year-old daughter is far less comfortable about the idea of sex and drugs than the average girl her age. As an example, now that Abbie is in the fifth grade her school requires her to do her homework in an agenda planner that they hand out to students on the first day of school. On the back page of the planner is an antidrug ad. Abbie was embarrassed just to read the ad and really was shocked that the ad had the word “drug” in it.
    On the other hand, Serene (the daughter I gained when I married Bo) at age seven frequently does the booty dance and has even “humped” on my youngest daughter, Madalynn. There have been times when I have had to take Abbie out of the room when Serene acts like that. Because Serene lives with her dad, much of what goes into her head is out of my control. But I do what I can and hope that my influence will have an impact on her. I love that little girl very much. I know now that many of my childhood experiences, however unpleasant, prepared me

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