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I remember alot about my parents drug problem, it was usually me and my sister having the run of the house to ourselves. My mom and dad stayed mostly in their room with the door shut. we cooked our own food and washed our own clothes. we had to watch out for police or someone always coming to our house. there was alot people in and out of our house and we seen alot. we seen alot of fighting and stuff. we had a hard time making it to school on time. teachers started asking us alot of questions, we didn't want to be taken away from our parents and our mom always said she was sick. So we told people she was sick.

I've seen bruises on my mom's arms, she would always make up something or cover them with make up, but me and my sister knew she was shooting up. We've seen needles laying around and in the trash. we knew. kids know alot more than what people think we do. even though mom tried to hide when they were cooking or doing it. we still seen and smelt the bad smell. My mom lost alot of weight and looked really bad, and she thought she looked good, because she could wear my sister's clothes. we've seen and heard alot of bad stuff, it scares us kids when the police is always coming to arrest your mom or doing drug raids. The last time before we were taken away, my mom was in jail, in the middle of night the police busted in the door and me and my sister were asleep on the couch. One of the cops grabbed me up yelling and screaming thinking I was my mom. It scared me to death. after that they took us outside and was arresting the people that was in our house. my grandma came and got us and we had to wait outside for her to come. it was so scared. we were crying and didn't know what was going to happen. we had to go to the hospital then and get checked. my sister tested pos. for meth. It took my mom 3 years to get us back but she did it. and we are so glad she is clean.

I would like to say to parents you can get clean and you don't know how bad it hurts us kids to be away from our parents and what we have to go through. but you can do it. my mom did.

Amber Greenlee