“When my son was a baby. I’m being serious here, like a newborn. I’ve never told anyone this before. His dad and I both saw this at separate times. When my son was a newborn, his face changed from this cute innocent baby face to this monster, scary-looking face that scared the living bejesus out of me. I didn’t say anything. The following night the very same thing happened with his Dad. He told me, I told him. We’ve never told another human being until now. That was almost 15 years ago.
I didn’t know at the time THAT was the moment something is not right with my child, but looking back now I know. There was a lot of tell-tale signs starting even as a baby that something was wrong with my child, even from childbirth. I just thought I had a difficult kid with ADHD.
By the time he was in the first grade he was diagnosed with ODD and I was told he was destined for prison as an adult. Not out loud, but I told that doctor where to shove it (it is a hard pill to swallow being told your kid is messed up no matter how true it may be). It broke my heart. I tried treating my son to the best of my ability with all the help in the world from the school, friends, mentors, etc.
His mental health progressively got worse and well, he will be 15 in a couple of weeks and despite how hard I tried, he is already in jail. He gets out in March. I try to have hope every single day that things will be different when he comes home, but the letters I read don’t indicate that.”
