Chapter 22

So I finished 7^th grade and moved in with John and Mary, my third foster family.  John and Mary were older, around their late 40’s.  John was very tall and was an Amway salesman.  Mary was very short and round with silver white hair.  They were unable to have children of their own so they had adopted a little baby girl who they named Kimberly.  She was three years old when I came to live with them in the spring of 1986.  They also had another foster child, Maria.  Maria was a feisty girl who hailed from Panama.  She was one year older than me and had been living with John and Mary for about one year.  They lived in a nice, blond brick home in Davenport, Iowa.  They seemed very nice, but as it would turn out, I would not really be part of a family, but a tenant in their home.  I not only shared a bedroom with Maria, but we had to share a full-size bed as well.  This angered me from the get-go.  I am not very free and open with my personal space and this was a huge infringement on that.  But I learned to cope.  Our bedroom was upstairs in the attic with no air conditioning, so summers were excruciating.  Kimberly was the princess of the house and could do no wrong.  She really was a sweet little girl and I enjoyed playing games with her and being a good big sister for once.  My big sister, Maria, was not sweet, but wild and reckless.  This was either unseen or ignored by John and Mary, because Maria got away with everything.  Once again, I recognized I was living in a house where I would be allowed to do whatever I wanted.  There was no structure and no house rules to follow.  I would have to set them for myself.  This would prove to be very challenging for a newly minted teenager.