On January 8, I was born. The doctor said I was born addicted to drugs since my mom had been using drugs during her entire pregnancy. I had to stay in the hospital for 4 months, so I could get cleaned up and no longer want drugs instead of milk. Life has been hard for me from day one. Growing up with a mom and dad addicted to meth and a 15 year old sister addicted to heroin, things are never easy. With a family like this, you have to grow up fast.

With in the past month my mom had OD'd three times. Its pretty scary only being 8 and always having to make sure your mother is still alive, or your dad makes it back safely from a drug run. I even have to make sure that my older sister eats, so she doesn't start losing weight so fast and have people wondering whats going on. At 8 years old I had become the man of the house.

One day I had come home from school, but when I was a turning the corner to the house, all I could hear is yelling coming from my house. I didn't know what was going on, so I ran home. When I got there, all I see is my parents yelling at my sister. Her stuff was thrown out of the house laying all over the lawn. I'm not really sure what was going on, and I really didn't want to be in the same room with them while that was going on so I went to my room. Even with the door closed and my head under my pillow, I could still hear the sound of their muffled voices.

I found out later that night that they had kicked my sister out to the streets, along with whatever else she had. I was worried about her, I was afraid that something bad might happen out on the streets. As each day went on, I waited for the phone call that would say they had found my sister dead somewhere. I haven't been able to sleep for days with that thought in my head, and I skipped a lot of days of school too. I didn't want to leave my parents alone, and I wanted to stay home just in case my sister came back.

Before I knew it 3 months had gone by, and I haven't been to school since. I'm not really sure who called but a lady claiming to be from social services showed up at my front door one afternoon. Nobody was home except for me and I wasn't sure what to do and my parents weren't suppose to be back for a couple more hours. I didn't want to be taken away by the lady and I knew that they would just keep coming back. I had to think of a plan quick, and all that came to my mind was to run away. Live on the streets with my sister, then that way I wouldn't be taken away and can return anytime to my parents. Within seconds I grabbed my things and put it into my backpack along with some food.

I made sure that the lady was completely gone, when I left the house. It didn't take long to find my sister because there was this park that she had loved so much and always went to, and I found her there. She was a little shocked to see me, and I explained to her everything that was going on and why I had left and that I need to stay with mom and dad. She was hesitant about letting me stay with her, but she had finally caved in. I stayed with her for 5 years out on the streets, and every weekend I made sure to go back to the house to check on my parents, and bring back some food for me and my sister. We had had some tough times, but we are making it through it all and things have been going well for the circumstances.