This is going to be very difficult to write, but I think to fully understand who I am as a person that it has to be shared. And it is directly related to my topic in one specific way. For legal reasons, I will not be using real names in this post.
Where to start? When I was very young, like three years old or so, my father left my mom, my two brothers, and me. After the divorce my mom met my step-dad and when I was seven they were married. I grew up calling him Dad because he really was the only "dad" I ever had. He had a son of his own but he is not a part of this story. Although, he knows about everything I am about to write. Now to get into the hard stuff.
When I was eight years old, we started going to a new church and that summer they had a church camp at Camp Tapawingo in Oregon. During the first couple of days I was fine and was involved in all the activities that I could be. Then about day 5 or so I became very sick. I had a raging temperature and was puking all over the place. It was not a pretty site. They took me to the nurses office and there was a bed and a cupboard that had all the medicines in it and I stayed there for the remainder of our stay. The nurse there was really nice and he was a nurse at a small doctors office in Portland, Oregon.
My parents were very grateful toward him because he took really good care of me and they all became friends. So we left Sunday afternoon and I was feeling better. The next day I stayed home from school just in case I wasn't fully recovered and by Tuesday, I was back in school. The following Sunday we were back in church and David had come up to my mom and dad after church and suggested that we all have a get together and just hang out. My parents agreed and the following Thursday he came over and we just hung out like planned.
A few months down the road, we had had many get-together's with David, almost every week, and he could tell that my parents were a little stressed and could use a date night so he offered to watch us the following Saturday.They agreed, and about every 2 or 3 Saturday's my mom and dad would go on date night and David would watch us kids. Well a couple months went by and David suggested that he could watch us at his house and we could spend the night while my parents went on date night and my parents agreed once again.
The first few times, nothing happened. Everything was as it should be. We would watch some movies, or play some board games and it was fun. Then, things started getting kind of weird. And remember I was only about 8 or 8 and a half at the time so I didn't really understand much of what was happening to me. He would get out the board games like normal and we would go a couple rounds and then he suggested we try something new. He said that game was called "strip" whatever the game was that we were playing. My oldest brother was never really around for that part and I think it was because David was afraid he might say something to my parents and he didn't want them to know.
So this happened almost every time that we would go over there and he made us promise that we wouldn't say anything. Being the young and naive children that we were, we agreed. Then he stepped it up. He would take us, me and my brother John into the bedroom and do very disturbing things to us. Then after a while he stopped bringing John into the room and it was just me. He would do some inappropriate things to me and on some nights he would even drug me. Some sort of pill that would make me loopy. He would take inappropriate pictures of me and then "delete" them. This went on for about 5 years.
By the time I reached fourth grade I knew that what he was doing was bad, but I didn't want my parents to think it was my fault and I didn't want them to reject me so I kept it a secret. Well one day;5 years later, at about 4:30 PM, my mom was on her way home from work and my dad was still at his job, and my brothers and I heard a knock at our door. David's nephew Oscar was over and we were all hanging out so we all went to the window to see who it was and it was the police. They asked if our parents were home and we said that our mom would be home in about 15 minutes so they waited outside. My mom got home and was very confused. She invited the officer's and the child services lady in and then called my dad to tell him to rush home. So he did.
While we all waited for my dad to get home, she offered them some coffee and then my dad walked through the door. The child service's lady asked us kids to go to the back room and turn on the radio so we did. She then proceeded to ask my parent's about David and how we had all met and then she told my parents that they had been watching his activity online and were growing suspicious and that they had found some picture's of me on his computer. She then told my parents that I was a victim of sexual abuse and that they were opening a full investigation and that David had been put in federal prison
They talked to me, and they talked to my brothers and they also talked to Oscar to see what we knew. They explained to my parents that it would be a long process and that my brother John and I would need to go into the child service's office to arrange therapy and to have an interview with some more people. About a year or two later, therapy was over and life went on but the investigation wasn't over yet. We would occasionally have to go in for questioning and talk with our lawyer about everything. Both of my brothers went into the military after high school. So they weren't really around toward the end of it all. In September of 2012, the investigation finally came to a close and he was sentenced to 35 years to life in federal prison.
I know that this is a sad story. One that I have had to deal with my WHOLE life. But in all honesty I am a stronger person because of it. Please don't feel sorry for me because I don't feel sorry for myself. And with God's help I am SLOWLY learning to forgive David for all the wrong he has done in my life. Also I would appreciate it if you didn't look anything up because I have just told you all you need to know.
Thanks!
Lisea
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