The Diary of An American Woman: (Memories of The Past)

Chapter 7: Trying to Change for The Best

Maria's POV (A month after the children were taken away)

It's been a month since the children were taken away. It's been really hard, being without them. Sometimes I go to to Isabell's room, cry and fall asleep in there. It hasn't been easy for Jonathan either. He's mostly been at home with me,  but he also goes to his friends or sister's house. The CPS worker and the judge from Family Court says in order to get my kids back I need to go to AA (Alcohol Anonymous) meetings, and parenting classes. They'll be taking drug tests on me monthly also, so they know if I'm improving or not. But it won't be easy. Once you start having a drug addiction, it's hard to stop it. It helps me calm down and I feel very relaxed. It's like all my problems are gone and I don't have to worry about anything else. 

We just recently started visiting the children, for now we can only go to visit once a week. And if we improve ourselves, we can start spending weekends with each other Friday's through Sunday's. I've stopped working, right now my focus is to make myself better, so I can get my children back. Next week will be court, they'll be discussing how the children are doing and how am I improving myself and when will I be able to get the children back.

Isabell's POV (Age 6)

It's been about a month and a half now, and I still don't know when I can go back with mom and dad. Mrs. Garcia is nice but I really want to go back, I miss them very much. Mrs. Brown will be coming today to see how me and Mario are doing. I'm currently in school right now. Today Mrs. Torres taught us about money; pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters,  dollars, and how much they're worth. Tomorrow we'll be learning how to count money by adding and subtracting it. We've also learned about the vowels A, E, I, O, and U. Sometimes when they're in a word they say it's name. And in some words they have vowels but they have another letter with it that is silent, like in the word "wait, lay, made, and lady" there's the vowel "a" but the other vowel is silent. We've also learned that the letter "Y" says "ee"  sometimes in some words. I have to learn my new sight words. every week Mrs. Torres gives us ten new sight words so we can learn how to write and spell them, then on Friday's she gives us a spelling test. She goes around the class and says the word and we have to write down the word on a paper and give it to her when we're finished. So for homework, Mrs. Torres gives us a packet of homework with Math and  English every Monday and we have to give it back to her on Friday. 

After School

Mrs. Torres walks all of us to the gate wear our parent's are waiting to pick us up. 

"Bye Alex, Shayla, Max, and Tanya. I'll see you guys tomorrow." I say to them as they're leaving with their parent's. 

"Okay, come on Isabell. Mrs. Garcia hasn't came to pick you up yet, so I have to take you to the office." Mrs. Torres says.

"Ok." I reply. Sometimes she comes late, but it's okay I don't mind.

About twenty minutes later Mrs. Garcia comes. 

"I'm so sorry Isabell, I was at the store and had to pick up Diana. And I lost track of time." She says as she goes to the front desk and signs me out of school.

"It's okay." I say to her. We walk out of the school and go to the car.

"How was your day at school?" She asks me as we get in the car. 

"It was good, we learned about vowels and about money today. Tomorrow we're gonna learn how to count it and add and subtract money."

"Oh ok, that's good dear. Today I'm going to make spaghetti and broccoli. If you finish all of your food and vegetables you'll get ice cream."

"Ok."

As soon as I got home I did two pages of my homework packet. After that I played with my dollies, then watched some tv. After dinner I ate strawberry ice cream and took a shower and got ready for bed.