When we made the decision to start this website, we were cognizant of the fact that we were laying our hearts and souls out in plain sight. We continue to feel that the benefits of creating this site far outweigh any ill effects and we have been incredibly blessed by the responses we have had. Sadly, we have had some negativity from some distant family members who have never really tried to understand our lives, but instead, have done nothing but judge our parents and us, based upon their very limited knowledge of our lives. It is one thing to judge from the sidelines and altogether another to actually live with an addict. It is incredible to us, that thousands of unique viewers have visited our site, and we have had nothing but an outpouring of love, support and encouragement from literally thousands of people, except a couple of distant family members. We are certainly not asking anyone to agree with us. We are simply putting our stories out there and making ourselves vulnerable, to hopefully, help others. The majority of our family (including both of our mothers and Poppa), supports us, and have always loved us and wanted only the best for us. While we understand that our subject matter is difficult at best, these are OUR stories. We lived them. We survived. We triumphed over abuse. Our stories are honest, heartbreaking, and they take us back to times we really don't want to have to remember.
Why are we doing this? We are doing it because we want to give hope to addicts and their families. We want to erase the stigma of substance abuse. We want to do whatever it takes to help families heal, because we didn't begin to heal until after our Daddy's death. And let me tell you, my friends...that sucks and it sucks badly. My sister and I don't get a second chance. We no longer have our Daddy and to be honest, most of our memories of him aren't that great. We cling to the good memories, yet we are scarred enough from our childhoods that we don't need to be reminded of our shortcomings by those who are supposed to love us. If you haven't lived it, you just don't know. We think this is a lesson for us all. Perception of others is most often not reality. With that being said, we will not be discouraged. We will continue to forgive, to love, and to reach out to anyone who wants help. We will be strong and unwavering from our mission. We will not let words from those who never cared to help us when we desperately needed help, affect us now. These are our stories...and we are telling them.
Why are we doing this? We are doing it because we want to give hope to addicts and their families. We want to erase the stigma of substance abuse. We want to do whatever it takes to help families heal, because we didn't begin to heal until after our Daddy's death. And let me tell you, my friends...that sucks and it sucks badly. My sister and I don't get a second chance. We no longer have our Daddy and to be honest, most of our memories of him aren't that great. We cling to the good memories, yet we are scarred enough from our childhoods that we don't need to be reminded of our shortcomings by those who are supposed to love us. If you haven't lived it, you just don't know. We think this is a lesson for us all. Perception of others is most often not reality. With that being said, we will not be discouraged. We will continue to forgive, to love, and to reach out to anyone who wants help. We will be strong and unwavering from our mission. We will not let words from those who never cared to help us when we desperately needed help, affect us now. These are our stories...and we are telling them.