Anthony’s Story
Eight-year-old Anthony was angry when he was adopted at age six. ”No one asked me, don’t I get to say?” His voice tremored and his eyes filled with tears. Anthony felt voiceless. Even though he was living with loving, adoptive parents and his older sister and younger brother, he still felt hurt and betrayed when he walked in the Center for Children and Families.
He loved his real mom and dad, but life was unstable because they were in and out of jail. Anthony’s mother and father had been involved with making and selling meth from young ages - this way of life was all they had known. Despite their love for their children, changing this addictive lifestyle proved too difficult.
Their negative activities directly involved Anthony and his siblings. Anthony was just four when his mother began having him shoplift items like food, toys, and electronics. When he was five, he witnessed his father attack and mug someone. When his parents would go out, they often left the children alone with no food or blankets in a home with cracks in the windows and a broken front door.
Before CCFI, Anthony wanted to be back with his mom, He missed her and he didn’t understand why he was taken away from her. Living with his new parents, Sarah and Andy, his emotions jumped between extremes. Anthony would bounce off the walls when he was happy, but when he was angry or sad he would kick furniture, throw objects, or become unresponsive. Anthony often had problems with his new adoptive parents. He would never want to take a bath, comb his hair or brush his teeth for them. Anthony rebelled because he didn’t want new parents.
Anthony and Sarah began meeting with the Trauma Focused Services director, Stevie. They attended Child/Parent Relationship therapy together, and through time, Anthony went from ignoring Sarah and shutting her out of his play to slowly inviting her to play trucks or a board game with him.
Anthony’s sour expression with Sarah began to fade away and was replaced by a big smile and joyous eyes when around his mom. A drawing hangs on Stevie’s office wall from Anthony. It depicts him and his mom playing together at CCFI. “Mommy Sarah and I think this is the best place to play,” he told her when he gave it to her.