[ruthann8]

Well, my 17 year old cousin is pregnant. I’m actually not surprised. I had been kind of expecting it. My aunt (her mom) hasn’t been a good parent…..ever. This isn’t something I can really talk about with family and friends b/c it is kind of a hush hush thing yet & I’m sure it will be a touchy subject. But I needed to express my thoughts on the situation.


Brief history


When my cousin was about 1 ½ there was a house fire. My aunt and my cousin were hurt really bad, they almost didn’t make it. They spent MONTHS in the burn unit. My aunt was mostly lung issues and burnt on her back (falling debris) and hands (door knobs). My cousin was trapped in her crib. They said it was like being in an oven for her. Anything not covered by her summer pjs were burnt just from the heat alone (feet, lower legs, arms, hands, face/head-all 3rd degree+). She lost her fingers on her left hand and her face and scalp are disfigured. Large portion of her hair never grew back. And of course she had lung issues. We almost lost her, many times; it was just too much for a baby to handle. They didn’t expect her to make it. There story was featured on the Children’s Miracle Network. I hate thinking about the whole thing.


It was bad wiring in a rental house. They got a large settlement and were set finically for life. My aunt dwindled it away within a few years. She got in troubled from embezzling money from work. She has lost everything. She has many other legal problems too.


But my aunt has never taken care of her kids (3 –different fathers), more so she has never loved her kids. My cousin’s injuries from the fire require treatment though out her life, that my aunt never gave her. At one point as my cousin grew older her the finger bones began to grow threw her stubs. There is a trust fund set up for my cousin to receive when she is 25 (small portion of the settlement). But there won’t be much left. They go permission to use it for special circumstances. B/c my aunt refuses to care for her children it has been used for insurance premiums, new car for my cousin (which she has already wrecked), car insurance, medical bills, etc.


My aunts life has always revolved around her boyfriends, money, & drugs. If the man she was dating liked kids then they were a happy family for a short time. But most off her boyfriends/husbands were into drugs & money.




But the past couple years have been bad. My cousin got that car, which was mainly so she could drive her mom back and forth to work (my aunt has too many DUI’s). But after the car was wrecked there was no more use for her daughter and my aunt has a new boyfriend. So my aunt decided she didn’t want her anymore. But her dad didn’t want her either. So my aunt put her in foster care. My cousin is a handful. She just isn’t naughty, she is manipulative. She will do anything to get what she wants and jealousy makes her do things just to make people’s lives horrible. Well foster won’t take her anymore either. So she has been living with older friends. But DHS had been requiring her to get the birth control shot. But she never showed up for the last one. It is believed she got pregnant on purpose.



My aunt has 2 other kids. The older boy (19) is a gentle, kind hearted boy. He has always had to protect his younger sisters. But he has NO self esteem. And he will be stuck working fast food for the rest of his life. He has no motivation to do anything. The youngest girl (15) is on the same track as her sister.