Thank you.

I have two very young daughters. If they grow up to possess the kind of courage you’ve shown, I will be so, so proud of them.

You do have a strong sense of purpose. I have no doubt it will take you far.

So many men would be more interested in keeping the woman in their life, regardless of what happehs to their children. But once he knew, he left her.

You get your strength honestly.

Civil lawsuits actually stand a better chance at doing something to her, than criminal charges for what she did. I am a teacher & a nurse & I’ve seen a lot in my lifetime. If she did to a dog or cat what she did to you & your sister, she’d have been jailed a long time ago, fined tons fo money. But in our culture, children are not worth as much as dogs & cats. Don’t get me wrong, I believe heartily that no one has a right to torture animals, either. It’s just I think the punishment for harming a child should be far, far worse than for harming an animal, but in America, we have a backwards legal system. When suing an abuser has a better chance of punishing them than criminal proceedings, that’s bad,

One thing people always ask when things like this happen, is, if there’s a God, where is He & why does He let this go on if He loves us? Well, He is there, He never leaves, but He can’t come down & throw a bolt of lightning on someone because He doesn’t want people to follow Him out of fear they’re giong to get “zapped,” no matter how great an idea we thing htat is. Instead, He told people who saw you & your sister freezing in the snow to call the police to help you, & they “didn’t want to get involved,” so they told Him to bug off. He asked the bystanders who walked or drove by & saw you being tormented, to call for help, but they said, “We don’t know the situation,” instead of looking at it and thinking. There’s no situation that would justify that. He told your teachers, who are trained to recognize the signs of abuse to talk to you, to work on drawing you out, & they said things like, “What if their stepmother comes after me?” oe (despite their knowing better) “What if they make me testify & her family comes after me?” or, “I can’t make them tell me what’s going on if they don’t want to,” or, “This will just end up like all the rest, nothing will happen to the abuser but they’ll come take revenge.” He told doctors who treated you to report abuse to the State (& you can sue them if they didn’t – if you were being abused, they treated you for anything as suspicious as frostbite on a little kid who’s scared witless, if they didn’t report it, they can be investigated & brought up on criminal negligence charges; so can nurses & social workers & teachers; we are legally bound to say something if there’s any question at all). And He told your Dad to wake up & see his 2 frightened girls. At least he listened, finally. And He tried to give 2 scared little girls the courage to speak up, knowing they were too hurt to do it, that their sense of self worth had been pummeled into the ground. So, He was there; & finally, He gave your sister the power to fight back. She had reached a point where she no longer cared if your stepmother killed her, because if she died she would do her best to take the abuser with her.

And at that point, you realized you were no longer helpless. You could fight back. Physically, mentally, emotionally. And, I hope, spiritually.

Why people who see abuse like this don’t report it, I’ll never know. They’ll see someone lightly but firmly whack a toddler who’s in the middle of a tantrum, pn the bottom to get them to stop – even though it’s one disciplinary smack, they’ll report that. But they see 2 little kids in flimsy PJs in the snow & do nothing. They can report it anonymously & trigger an investigation, but they’d rather put in a false report & make trouble for someone innocent.

They’d report any suspicious activity toward an animal in a heartbeat. Why do they stop there? Why not also report things like what someone had to have seen you girls enduring? People can get back at you for reporting them as being cruel to animals…why is it safe to help a cat or dog but not a child?

Your purpose? Might I suggest something for thought? Educating people on how to use common sense, on legal protections for those who report suspected child abuse in good faith. Of course, there is always the problem of social workers who might come in & see nothing, or who are charmed, but everyone practically has a cell phone camera, they can take a picture as proof. Letting people know that children are helpless.

Maybe there’s some way you & your sister could heal by healing others – be child advocates. Kids will often tell other kids things they won’t tell adults. Your guidance counselor might be able to help you.

When something hurts you, often healing comes by serving others like you, because you can see how you are not alone.

Whatever your choices, remember that God did try very hard to get someone to help you. We often think people don’t listen to us, but God has a really big problem getting people to follow His directions! I know it is going to be difficult to deal with spiritual things right now but I did want to give you food for thought.

I was never beaten, but I was often threatened with being thrown out of the house, even when I was very young. I don’t know if they were serious, but at that time, it sounded dead serious to me. I made myself indispensible & managed. It’s not near as bad as what you had, & it took me a while to figure out that God had indeed spoken to people’s hearts & they hadn’t listened. Then I was able to accept the comfort & help only He can give.

I will pray for you specifically. I pray for all victims of any type of abuse & neglect; for children at risk; & for people to listen to that urge to do something & act on it.

Hugs!