I was born in South Africa to a 16 year old unwed mother. My mom was too young to take on the responsibility of motherhood so my granny stepped in and she raised me as her 11th child. My mom has since gone on to have five more children. It was many years before my siblings were told that I was their sister and not their aunty. My grandparents were very strict, especially my granny. …
I was born in Kurdistan, Iraq. Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq, hated our people. He and his regime systematically tortured, persecuted, imprisoned and murdered thousands of Kurdish people in an attempt to exterminate us completely. Mass shootings, live burials and chemical attacks on cities and villages, he was brutal and merciless. My father was a journalist and musician at the time and began writing anti-Saddam songs and articles. He distributed them amongst the Kurdish …
Dad took a hammer to the walls late one night. The next morning, the kitchen was covered in dents left by the hammer’s blows. Before I headed off to school, my mother and I ate breakfast in our newly “decorated” kitchen. No one said a word. My father was an alcoholic. His disease consumed our lives. I was told that there was a time, prior to my adoption, when my dad was a happy man. …
Splash Mountain was my favorite ride at Disneyland and I was not willing to delay the experience – even for something as necessary as going to the bathroom. Despite the obvious, long, line, I convinced myself that I could wait. The line wove through the dark, damp corridors of the artificial rock formations and after waiting over an hour, our family of five climbed into the log boat. By the second verse of the “How …
I was anxious and a little overwhelmed. It was the night before a big event that I was hosting for a local charity and my head was spinning with all the details that still needed to fall into place; too much to do, not enough time. So I sat in my car in the parking lot of my apartment complex just a little longer. I turned on some worship music and began to pray. It …
