The month of January in 2004 was perhaps the longest month for me. The whole month felt like a grand-span of six months. At the high school I was attending in Delaware it became a routine that I would go visit with the school counselors, everyday. Even though I made really good grades, I would miss my fourth period class (most days) to go and talk to these counselors. Sometimes I would just sit in their offices and drink green tea...a drink I would always get while visiting their offices. When I would visit their offices, I did not want to tell them fully about my situation at home...so I would use other circumstances in my home life to express how I was feeling within myself. And since I was so use to being told that I was taking my mother's past as my own, I would talk about the abuse my mother went through...along with how my step father would talk to me.
Even though I would talk about the way my step dad talked to me and be explicit about my mother's past, the way I was told about it...I was always "hush-hush," so to speak, when it came to my abuse. I had not once told them that my step dad was having sex with me or that my step dad would beat me if I tried to defend myself. I just want to add that for any counselor or therapist that I had seen throughout my lifetime, they were not the ones that helped me overcome my situation and my "aftermath" of the abuse. They were only there for me to talk to...and that was it.
There was only one person that helped me overcome everything... Jesus was the one who took me out.
After, one night, of giving my step father a "sexual favor" in order to make up for being a rebellious teenager (according to my step dad)...I went up to my bedroom, when it was time for me to go to bed, and I broke down in tears.
I had enough.
I laid there on my bed reflecting on every situation where I was abused. I recalled the time when my step dad told me, after making me have sex with him down in our basement, that when I turned 18 years old that he was going to divorce my mother...and marry me. As I sat and reflected on that comment, my stomach felt like it was going to come out of my throat. I remember even being disgusted when I first heard it. I remembered another situation where I resorted to acting like a little girl, while I was a teenager being abused, pleading with my step father saying, "Daddy...please stop? I beg you...don't you see me as your daughter." I also remembered, that same moment, that he thought it was "arousing" that I was calling him "Daddy" while he was forcing himself to have sex with me. Again, I felt disgusted and betrayed.
I remembered when I was laying in my bed...and my little sister, who was 5 or 6 at the time, crawled into bed with me because she had a nightmare. She wanted me to keep her safe from the monsters in her dream. So I let her sleep next to me in my bed. After a while of her being asleep, my step father came in the bedroom. He kneeled down beside my bed, with my sister sleeping right next to me. I begged him, "Please don't do this with her being in the bed with me Please don't do this" He just responded, don't worry...I won't wake her up. He fondled me right there...with my little sister laying there, sleeping peacefully. I thought, "How could he do that with his OWN DAUGHTER laying right there next to me?! How could he?!" I thought to myself that if he didn't care that my little sister, HIS daughter, was laying there next to me while he was abusing me...he would do the same to her if I were to go off on my own or go off to college.
...I could NOT let that happen. That thought resignated in my mind and it echoed through my thoughts like someone speaking loudly in a museum.
Here's another thought I had...if I were to say anything, like I had in the past, it would all get turned around on me again just like it did over and over again the last three times that I had said something. I would get accused of making up the story or, like always, that I was delusional and I was putting myself in my mother's past. Afterall, that one therapist in Houston, Tx said that was so...so it must be true, right? I knew it wasn't, but no one else could be sure.
So I gave up...
I gave up on trying to do it myself. I just laid in my bed...crying and sobbing. I felt helpless. I couldn't do anything. My step dad was such a good lying, manipulative, and deceitful person that if he were to convince people that there was a flying purple dinosaur roaming the skies, the people would believe it. I was desperate for the abuse to be over...to sleep many nights, for the rest of my life, and not worrying about a predatory man coming into room for me. I wanted it to be over. All of it. The beatings, the sexual encounters, the insanity...all of it. I wanted it all to stop, but I gave up trying to do it myself.
As I was laying there in my bed, a thought came across my mind. "What if I prayed." I still considered myself Agnostic, but what could it hurt. I had nothing to lose...and I was desperate enough. So I calmed myself down, a little bit, and I began to pray,
"Lord, I don't know if you are real. If you are, then I hope you get this prayer. I am desperate for all of the mess I am going through in my life to end. I have tried telling people what my (Dad) is doing, but no one really believes me. I have tried committing suicide, but I didn't die. I tried taking my step dad's life, but I felt something tell me to stop. I am at the end of my rope and out of decisions.
Jesus, if you are real. If you are truly there, prove it to me by taking me OUT of this abuse. If you take me out, I will follow you. I will believe you and you can have my life! You don't have to kill my step dad or send him to jail...if you do, then it's by your will, not mine. If you change him, that's fine too. I just want it to stop. Jesus, I beg you...let it stop. Take me out of this situation. My life is yours, if you do.
In Jesus Name,
Amen."
I made that prayer that night and I went to sleep in tears. Little did I know that my prayer was going to be answered in a couple of days.
Prayer Answered"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew (show) thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."
Jeremiah 33:3 (KJV)
A couple of days after I made that prayer, I went to school that day...normal as usual. It was an ordinary day for me. I did my usual thing in the mornings. I brought my big container full of coffee, brought some type of light breakfast with me to school and I was focused and prepared for the entire day. Like I said before, school was my home from home. I loved school. My first class of the day, was my ultimate favorite. It was my Drama class. I loved any of my art classes, but Drama was at the top. I loved to act. I've liked acting since I was able to memorize movies, if you remember from the first part of my testimony. For class, that day, we were reading the script, "Bang Bang, You're Dead" which my class needed to memorize for a grade. My class needed to memorize that script as part of our final for the semester, which was fine by me. It was also the class that my best friend and I shared. Her name was Sara and she and I did everything together, almost. She, too, had a rough life growing up so it was fitting for us to be best friends.
That day, as I was walking into my class... I heard that same voice that spoke to me when I was attempting to kill my step father. The voice told me, strongly, "Tell your friend." I looked over in the classroom and saw my friend, Sara, waiting for me in the area that we usually sat in the classroom. I heard the voice again tell me, "Tell your friend, Sara, what's going on with you...and something will happen."
I had told her before, in gym class, that my step dad was abusing me, after hearing about certain things she had been through, but had stopped her from saying anything...telling her that nothing else will happen again. However, when I walked over to her in the classroom and put my stuff on my desk...the words "Well, my step dad made me have oral sex with him again" fell out of my mouth. When I realized what I said, I gave a fake laugh. I didn't get the time to decide whether or not I was going to say anything. I was like something filled my belly, literally, and the words fell out like vomit. I was surprised that it came out of my mouth.
"Okay, Amber, that's it! I'm going to go to someone about this. This has gone far enough. Nothing you say is going to stop me, this time. I'm going to someone, today, and that's it." She told me, firmly. I tried convincing her not too...and I tried to tell you that I didn't mean to say what I said. But it was too late, it was going to happen.
Suddenly, my "normal" day became a day of climax! When I say "a day of climax," I mean that the day was getting slower for me, I could not focus on ANY of my classwork, and my day became a day of being anxious to see whether or not Sara was going to say anything!
Minutes became hours and hours became days, to me. I felt as though I had a weight placed on my shoulders...and I felt as though I was sweating buckets.
It was my sixth class of the day. Math. I couldn't focus on any of my work, like my other classes. Instead, I was eyebawling the door, waiting for it to open and one of those counselors grabbing me out of class. My heart was racing and my muscles were tensing up. I was scared out of my mind. I tried to convince myself, "Maybe Sara will feel bad and not say anything...and then this day could be over with! Maybe nothing will happen today! Maybe everything will be okay!"
Well, I suddenly heard the "clip-clop" of a woman's high-heels walking down the hall and they were coming closer to the door that I was staring at for thirty minutes. I started shaking. "Oh no, this is it," I thought to myself. I tensed up more than ever before and my heart felt like it was going to pop out of my chest.
Suddenly, the door opened, and there and behold was one of those counselors I would see every week...looking for me to excuse me from class.
"Hi, I'm sorry for interrupting...but can I please excuse Amber from class for a while?" I distinctly remember the phrase too well. It would be the last time I would be in that classroom. Ever.
I walk with the counselor out of the classroom and down the hall to her office. When I walked into the office, I saw the other counselor that I talked to sitting in that office as well. I knew already that both of the women knew what was going on and that Sara fell through with what she said. I sat in one of the seats, with my head hung low. Both the counselors sat beside one another and faced me...both were not smiling.
"Well, your friend, Sara, came to us today. We assume that you know what this is about," one of the counselors said.
"Yes. I do." I was short with them.
The other said afterwards, "We, first, wanted to tell you that this does not surprise us. You were leaving some clues that this was happening to you. This is usually typical for families who, for generations, have been through abuse of some kind. We were just waiting for this day to come where something was said."
"You knew that I was going through this?" I asked.
"Yes, we did. But we could not take action if we didn't know for sure." One of the counselors said. "Now, I just want to inform you that we are going to have to call your Mom."
My heart dropped. "Okay," I said, reluctantly. One of them got up and left the room to go call my mother. I sat there and I talked to the other counselor...mainly going over what I had talked to them in the past about and how they came to the conclusion that my step dad was sexually and physically abusing me.
Ten minutes after talking to the counselors, my mom walks through the office door. I'm in tears and my mother looks at me and smiles. She was thinking that it was about a boyfriend that I had broke up with, recently. They did not tell her right away why she was coming over. She sat next to me and held my hand. All I could think to myself was, "Oh great, I'm going to ruin her day..."
After letting my mother into the office, one of the counselors sits back next to the other one and starts off by saying, "Well, we called you in here today because Amber has said some things that we need to share with you."
"Oh, Okay," my mother said, suspiciously.
Before any of the counselors could go on to tell her what I said, I interrupted them by saying, "No. I will tell her..."
At this point, I could feel my mother's hands shaking. I turned to the side to face her. My mothers eyes looked scared and I could see her smile slowly fade away. I could tell that my mother was trying to be strong for whatever I was about to tell her. However, I think my mother and I both knew what I was about to say.
"Mom. Dad has done certain things to me that he has been doing behind your back." I told her. My mother's voice started shaking and her eyes began to water. "Like what, sweetie?" She asked. I told her, bluntly, "He's been making me do things to him like oral sex."
I could not continue to tell my mother everything that my step dad did to me before my mother threw her head into her hands and starts crying the loudest I've ever heard her cry. I kept saying to her over and over, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." But she kept telling me, "It's not your fault." The counselors told my mother that it was really hard for me to say what I had to say...but my mother didn't let them finish when she said, "We have to leave this state, immediately!" She went from hurt, to anger and panic. She was also afraid that she needed to take all of her kids and flee from my step dad. She knew that if he were to find out that I had said something, again, that he would manipulate the situation or possibly hurt one of us, in the family.
"It's okay, we are going to get through this," one of the counselors said, while trying to calm her. "Now we thought we should ask if you wanted to press charges against Scott?" one of the counselors asked my mother.
"Of course I do!" Said my mother. "He hurt my child!"
"Okay, well that's what we want to make sure of," said one of the counselors.
"I need to leave this state tonight, though," said my mother, "I have to take my kids away from him."
The counselors asked my mother if she needed a ride to go and grab my brother and sister out of school, as if to escort her, just in case my step dad came home early. My mother agreed and the counselors also agreed to go run to the house with us to grab our stuff out of our house. My mother was planning on fleeing the state, over night. It was a crazy moment. My mother went into both my sister's and my brother's schools and withdrew them from class and released them out of those schools, for good. At first, my six year old sister had no idea why we were leaving so abruptly...but my mom told my brother, since he was old enough to, somewhat, handle the reason why my mom wanted to leave. Of course, he was shocked.
After getting my brother and sister from school...and getting most of the stuff we needed to flee the state, we stopped back at my high school to sign me out when one of the counselors told my mom that the police were on the phone...and wanted all of us to go to the police station to give them more information to arrest my step dad. The police needed us to stay in state until they could get what they needed from us and go handcuff my step father and bring him in. My mother was reluctant, since she didn't want to see my step dad, but the police told the counselors that they would ensure that we wouldn't have to see him. We agreed and went down to the police station.
On our way to the police station, I would realize that God was real...and that he does answer prayer.
Downtown At The Police Station
It was quite a long evening for my family. We were at the police station for about five to six hours. From what I heard, the police officers went to my house...where my step dad was sitting in the living room on his laptop, and was taken to the police station (away from where we were at) and was interrogated and questioned. Meanwhile, during the hours that we were watching for the police to come and talk to us, my mother had to break the news to my little sister that her father was about to go to jail for what he did to me. During those hours, we would talk to eachother and find out that my brother was also being abused. We found out that my step father would come into my brother's room, in the middle of the night sometimes, and would beat on him and physically harm him.
I also found out that as soon as I told my mother what happened to me, she stopped hearing voices. The voices that she was hearing most of the time that she was married to my step father (10 years, to be exact), they disappeared. I did not realize it then, but when I told my mother what was happening to me while we were in the counselors office at my high school...God had healed my mother of something that most people, naturally, would have for the rest of their lives.
God sure was proving Himself to me more and more as the evening and night went on.
The police had interviewed both my mother and I, separately, to get our story and give detail information. When a police officer interviewed me, he asked me to give detailed descriptions of what my step father "looked like"...meaning to give detail descriptions of his lower area. It was really hard for me because I didn't want to think of anything detailed about my step father. However, I was able to describe every detail and every marking that he had. As a result, the police were able to conclude, after getting information from my mother and information from myself, that I was telling the truth. My step father was arrested, after being tricked into confessing that he did abuse me, and my family was able to go home that night.
"In my trouble I cried to the Lord: and he heard me."
Psalm 120:1
My Last week In Delaware
There were so many emotions that I was going through that last week I was in Delaware, after my step dad went to jail. Of course, my mother decided it would be wise if we all waited a month to move. She felt we could get everything we needed in that time so we could make sure we were all set for our new life back in Tennessee, where we were moving to. During those nights, I would always sleep next to my mom and sister in my mother's room. In the beginning, I was afraid to sleep by myself in my room. It reminded me to much of how alone I was when my step dad would come to get me when I was alone.
Like I was saying a moment earlier, God was revealing himself to me more and more. It would have been safe to say that I no longer considered myself Agnostic. God supernaturally took me out of the abuse I was facing (by using people in my life that were not followers of him), my mother was healed of schizophrenia when I told her what happened to me, and he was about to do another supernatural miracle.
My mother was really concerned that I was pregnant because of all the times my step father raped me. I was extremely late for my monthly cycle and I was also worried that I may be pregnant. My mother ran to the pharmacy and grabbed a pregnancy test and came back home. Before she handed me the box, she told me,
"Amber, if you are found pregnant, we are going to the women's clinic for you to go and have an abortion."
I told her "okay." Deep in the pit of my stomach, though, I had a very bad feeling. Something told me that it wasn't right if I were to go and get an abortion. My mother, actually, didn't like abortion because of her own personal experiences. However, my mother was so scared for me that she thought it was the best solution, at the time. Despite whether if it was right or wrong, I didn't feel right with the idea. In fact, I was scared of the thought of killing an innocent baby.
I grabbed the pregnancy box from my mother and headed towards the bathroom. On my way, I was praying to Jesus,
"Lord, if you say that abortion is wrong...please do not let me be pregnant? I don't feel right about going to the abortion clinic and need you to comfort me. You have answered my prayer before and I need you to answer it again. Lord, please? If you are listening, do not let me be pregnant! If abortion is wrong, do NOT let me be pregnant.
In Jesus Name I Pray,
Amen."
I walked into the bathroom and I prepared myself to take the pregnany test. As soon as I was about to take the test, I started my monthly cycle. I was so amazed! Not only did He answer my prayer, but He let me know His thoughts! I was finding out really fast that Jesus answered prayer...and I was thanking Him over and over again that I wasn't pregnant. When I told my mom that I started my period, a sign of relief came across her face. She was happy to know that I wasn't pregnant and that we wouldn't have to go to the women's clinic. I was truly blessed.
My Family's Move To Tennessee
As the week came to an end...after having my last moments with my best friend, Sara, as she helped me pack our stuff (as she has helped me to tell people what happened to me)...after many nights of sleeping with my mother and my sister...my family got up early in the morning (around the time of my mother's birthday), ate breakfast at Denny's Diner, and we headed out on the road to Tennessee. It was a long journey to our destination and we had made many stops. We would cross the bridge, pass by Washington D.C., we would drive up many hills and through the mountains on the border of Virginia and the tip of Tennessee. On my way there, I would reflect how God answered my prayer.
God rescued me and saved me from what I had been through. It had not quite hit me, though, why He did it. But He did. Little did I know, though, that He did it because he wanted me all to Himself. How He was there the whole time, but He was waiting for me to call on Him.
My story isn't over yet. For in the next part of my testimony would be how I gave my life to Jesus...and how I would be forever changed.
Never to be the same again.
My Story: Part 6 My Salvation
After arriving to Tennessee in February of 2004, I was dealing with a lot of anger and other emotions that I was left with after my step father was sentenced to prison. My taste in music started to change at this time. I no longer listened to bands like Kittie. Bands like that made me feel uncomfortable so I stopped listening to them. Although I still listened to some Heavy Metal, I found Death Metal to be repulsive. I couldn't hide in that anymore, like I did when my step father was around. I no longer "meditated" on music or hide myself in it...but that type of music became an addiction in my life.
Starting school in Tennessee, it was a big difference going to school there and going to school in Delaware. Instead of going to school and making good grades and feeling "safe" at my school (where school was home away from home)...school became a spiritual war zone for me. There were many times that I would make myself sick so I wouldn't go to school. I started having panic attacks, anxiety, and later (while in class) I would feel manifestations of hands groping and touching me all over my body every time I went to school. I couldn't focus in class many days because of what I was going through. At home I still had these problems, but I was "coping" with it by watching a bunch of movies or listening to music on the computer. A lot of times, though, I wanted to get out of the house. So I would hang out somewhere with one of my siblings at the mall, the park, or wherever I wanted to go, just to get away.
Another way I would get away, many times, was to talk to a friend from Delaware on the computer through AOL Instant Messaging. Talking with this friend would take me away from the realities of my own life...temporarily of course. Sometimes I would talk to this friend on the phone. I had known this person since middle school and before getting reconnected with this person, this friend of mine use to be into the religion of Wicca...and form of witchcraft. The times I was talking to this person on AIM in Tennessee, this friend of mine gave up the Wiccan religion and started getting into Christianity. I am not going to lie, I thought that my friend was going through a phase in their lives...but did not think much into it. I would talk to this friend almost everyday...or every week at least. We would talk about a lot of random things...school, friends, and even the church this friend went to.
One day, I was reflecting on everything that had taken place....with my step dad, my sudden move to Tennessee, my life at school, and my "condition" that I was faced with. I got on AIM and started talking to my friend, who was on at this time. As I was talking to this friend of mine, I was in tears. I told him that I didn't want to be other women that I had heard about, who have been abused. I didn't want to keep trying to find ways to cope with my "problems" and then ending up selling my body, doing drugs, or end up a drunk because I couldn't cope with it.
My friend asked me, "Are you serious? Do you really want much more and want that all to change?"
I told my friend, "Yes. I really do. I don't want this burden anymore."
My friend paused for a long time and then gave me the poem, "Footprints" which I had seen before...but never paid any attention to. I read the poem and I was in more tears than I had before. After my friend sent the poem, this friend sent me a prayer they said for me and told me that the only way that I could possibly have something different was to give my life to Jesus. This friend asked me if I would like to do that. I said "Yes" and this friend gave me another prayer for me to say to except Jesus into my life. I said the prayer and it was the end of that conversation. Although I said the prayer, I wasn't entirely sure how to give me life to Jesus. "Do I say the prayer and that's it?" I didn't have a real conviction...but it was definitely a seed, for which I saw later on. I didn't know what I was getting myself into...but I would soon find out a little later on.
April 2004: Rachel Joy Scott
For those of you wondering, "who is this girl?" I will tell you, but you will just have to continue to read. For those that doknow who Rachel Joy Scott is, you should know that the events about to unfold involved her...or at least her relative that was there to tell her story was. It was in April of 2004. That month I had started my outpatient counseling with a psychiatric facility known as Cornerstone. It was a nice sunny day on this particular day. My principal at my high school, Mr. Cordell, had arranged for a speaker to come and speak to the students at the high school. It was late in the morning.
Everyone arrived in the gymnasium, where this speaker was setting up the audio before her presentation. I sat by myself, in the front row of the gym bleaches. The presentation begins and I find out that it is one of the relatives of Rachel. I remember her being her aunt, but I could not recall her name. In this presentation it told of Rachel's life, her spiritual walk with God, her visions of what would happen to Columbine, and her last words to the shooters when asked if she believed in God. Her story really touched me. I remember listening to her story and thinking to myself, "I want what she had..."
At the end of the presentation, the people involved with the program was handing out books called, "The Book of Life" and it was a book for teens to reach them for Christ. I grabbed the book and took it home with me later that day. I would not realize until later that this book would change my life forever.
Later that night, right before I had to go to bed, I went into my book bag and remembered that I had taken that book I was given by the people at the presentation that day. Now, keep in mind...my intentions wasn't necessarily to read that book. I don't think I was really interested in reading it at first. I took the book home because it was something that I had got for free. However, I had pulled the book out of the bag and it reminded me of how touched I was on hearing Rachel's story.
I took the book with me out of the bag and sat beside my bed and skimmed through the pages. The book gave facts on teen depression, from what I noticed, and other situations that teens experience during their years in middle and high school. As I was skimming the pages, I stopped on this one page...for which I could not find later on after reading. I read this page and it was talking about Jesus. This page talked about the price Jesus paid for us. It said that Jesus knew me before I was thought of. In this page, it talked about how Jesus knew my struggle, knew my hurt, and knew my iniquity...which, by His own will, took every crack of the whip...
...every hit and mark on His body...
...the crown of thorns He wore...
..the nails driven through His hands and feet...
...He suffered for hours hanging on the cross...
All because He loved me enough to die for my sins. He died because He knew what would happen to me...what I would do to Him, as a result of committing sins that disobeyed Him. He loved me that much. On this page...it told me that most teens are in bondage by what the world tells them. There is no hope for them. But there can be. On this page...I was told that I could be free from that bondage...if I would surrender everything to Jesus. To call on His name and surrender all my hurt and all my iniquity to Him....and I would be free.
I shut the book and I pondered on that page. As I pondered, I realized how true those statements were. I began to cry. I felt like I finally found what I needed to do the change my future and where my life was leading me. So I got off the floor, shut the lights off, and crawled into my bed.
That night, I prayed desperately to Jesus. I prayed:
"Jesus, I want something more. I have nothing left to give but myself. I've been hurt and I've done things I shouldn't. Please, Lord?! Be the father that I never had...I want you to come into my life...I surrender everything to you. I NEED YOU, LORD! I realize that now...I want you to be the air I breath. Please, Lord?! Come into my life and let me be yours? Please...let me be yours..."
That whole night I was awake, I spent it crying and pleading to God to let me be His. I cried and cried and cried...all night.
As I was laying there, crying out of desperation to God...I felt something that almost took me by surprise. I felt these huge, muscular arms wrap around me like a father holding a small child. They were firm and strong. I looked around to see who was holding me...
...no physical person was there. I still felt the arms holding me, but I was surprised that I didn't see the person holding me. Suddenly, I felt a wave come through me...like a massive waterfall rushing down a cliff and hitting the top of my body. I felt like I was drowning from how heavy this presence was, but I was in peace. The arms were holding me even tighter and I never felt so safe in my life. And for the first time in as long as I could remember...I felt joy. True joy. As I laid there, there was a voice that came in almost a still whisper. The voice said to me, "You will always be mine. I will never leave you."
I knew right then who it was. It was the presence of Jesus in my room...laying next to me and holding me. I felt the love of Jesus all over me...and I felt immersed in His presence. His presence stayed with my until I fell asleep. I no longer, from that point, had one suicidal thought...or thoughts of homicide again. While God still needed to do some healing within me...
...it was the moment that my life was not merely my own, but of the Lord's.
TIMELINE
Step Dad's Arrest: January, 20 2004
Family Left Delaware: January, 27 2004
Arrival in Tennessee: February, 1-2 2004
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