chamberl - Tumblr blog

[chamberl]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6V3keFXbFY)

[chamberl]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbTFZ8cvHo4)

Powerful. Written from the perspective of a kids going through a divorce and how it feels.

[chamberl]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1ssVo3BY40) 

This is a sensitive and important issue.  Please know that she will be talking about depression and cutting.

[chamberl]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-h_k8bU5b4)

[chamberl]

Drug and alcohol

“My father moved back in with us when I was nine. He was an alcoholic. And he was a very big man. I remember being too intimidated to look past his neck. The first couple of weeks he was very nice. Every night he would put me to bed and tell me a story of a hopping bunny. Those are my happiest memories, but he got bored with that pretty quickly. When I was sixteen, he punched me in the face so hard that he shattered my front teeth.” (½)

[chamberl]

Knowing what it feels like is a powerful force.

“My father was a farmer and we had eight siblings. I went to Australia when I was fifteen because my family didn’t have enough to eat. I was on a boat for forty days. When I got there, I couldn’t find a job, I couldn’t speak English, and I had to sleep on the street. I know what it’s like. So everyday I drive the van to the port and hand out bread to the refugees. My son is my business partner. He says, ‘Baba, please. It’s fine to help. But not every day.’ But I still go every day because I know what it feels like to have nothing.” (Kos, Greece)

[chamberl]

Trauma and kids

“The army searched our house six times. The first two times they knocked on the door. The next four times they kicked in the door in the middle of the night. They hit my wife. They shocked me with an electric baton. And my children had to witness all of this. The psychology of my children changed before my eyes. I stopped getting hugs and kisses. They used to watch cartoons and play normal games. Now they only played games related to war. They’d chase each other around the house, shouting: ‘I’m going to kill you!’ I tried buying them an educational kit with cardboard squares and triangles and circles. When I left the room, they broke the shapes and turned them into guns.” (Hegyeshalom, Hungary)

[chamberl]

Families

“Luis is different. He’s got two moms. He’s an old soul. We live in the projects, and he doesn’t know who Michael Jordan is, or anything about rap music. He dresses himself in the morning. He chooses a button down and slacks, and sits in the kitchen with his legs crossed and reads the newspaper. But he’s still got the heart of a child. Yesterday he had $5 to buy himself a Halloween costume, and he saw a boy he knew while he was walking to the store, and he chose to buy him a costume instead. I always tell him: ‘You’re different, Luis. And that’s OK.’ When he wants to play, I walk him all the way down to Central Park, because I don’t really want him to change.”

[chamberl]

“I had one friend, but he went to the next grade. To make a friend, you have to talk to them which can be very hard. Most of the time, when I try to talk to them, I fail. Everyone thinks I’m a geek. I want to be a lawyer when I grow up. But just a defense lawyer. Because I’m much better at defending people than I am at accusing people. But I’d only want to defend kind people. You can tell if someone is kind by their aura. Plus, I’m smart. I know so many math facts. Ask me any math fact. Do you want a strategy for multiplying double digit numbers? If you want, I can teach you a strategy for multiplying double digit numbers.” ———————————————- Luis will be co-hosting the HONY Stories Book Launch tomorrow night at the Union Square Barnes and Noble. I don’t want to shoot off ALL our fireworks before the event, but Luis tells me there is a high probability that he will warm up the crowd with at least one knock-knock joke, as well as a particularly challenging brain teaser. There is also an 87.4 percent probability that Moochie The Guinea Pig will join us on stage. Luis also claims that he will ‘easily’ sign more books than me, but seeing that it’s a school night, I’m forced to question if he possesses the requisite endurance to back up such wild claims. We shall see. The event starts at 6PM, but capacity for the store is 1,000 people. So Barnes and Noble will be giving out wristbands beginning at 9 AM to anyone who purchases a book. Looking forward to seeing everyone who can make it.

[chamberl]

Family

“I found myself in my forties and I’d never had children. And one night I was watching a show on television, and it was talking about how many older children are in foster care, and I decided it was something I should do. I work now as a counselor who advises families considering older adoptions. So many foster children get returned to the system when they hit their teenage years because the parents have unrealistic expectations. People expect foster children to be grateful and well behaved and respectful. But many of these children have been traumatized, abandoned, and hurt. They are going to push your buttons just like any other teenager, and they are going to force you to deal with your own issues. It requires a lot of patience to give them the time, support, and space to process their life.”

[chamberl]

The Human Story

“My dad left us at a very young age and my mom didn’t know English. We never had anyone to help us with our homework. My stepfather beat us every day. Sometimes he’d whip us with extension cords. When I was thirteen, I threw a brick at him and broke one of his ribs so I had to run away. I moved into a crack house where they let you sleep there if you helped sell drugs. I live in the shelter now. I’ve spent over twenty years of my life in prison. I want my son to have a different life than me, but I can’t even help him with his homework. I don’t know my times tables or anything.”

[chamberl]

The Human Story: Foster Homes

“I met Mom when I was 14. I needed a new home so the agency set up a meeting. I’d been in many foster homes at that point. The caseworker knew that I was very shy, so she encouraged me to speak up during the meeting. But I didn’t know what to say. I’d been abused so much at that point, the only thing I could think to ask was: ‘Are you good?’”

[chamberl]