You would be so proud of this young woman. Rose has made it through all of her pain and is planning on attending college in 1-1/2 years. She has decided to go into the computer arts field.
She kissed a boy for the first time recently and we all got a big kick out of the reaction of a boy next door. He stated. quite unequivocally, that "... Rose is not that type of girl," and he will talk to the young man that kissed her. I said to him, "What in the world are you talking about?" Well, I was so surprised by what was told to me that you aren't going to believe it.
He told me that everyone respects Rose and everyone knows that she is not to be fooled with. I asked him to explain, and he did. He said that everyone knows that Rose is a good girl, that she has grown up with morals and ideals. They all know what has happened to her and are proud of her because she has risen above it. Rose has made it clear that she will not do drugs nor will she have sex just because everyone else is. This young woman has come through a horrible time and has become someone that everyone respects.
Her statements to me have made a lasting impression about who she is and what she expects from her life. She plans on waiting to get married until she feels that she is financially stable. She said that she doesn't want her child to be placed with family like she was just because she wouldn't be able to provide for him/her (like her mother). She also said that what I told her years ago has stayed with her. At the time, we were talking about husbands and marriage. I told her that "... NO woman should marry unless she is ready to be self sufficient. You have to know that you do not need a man for survival. They are nice to have around, but too many people stay in bad situations because they are unsure of themselves." I had told her that you have to think with your head and not your longings. We talked about seeing if people were strong enough to stand alone. I told her, "...The best way to judge someoneis to honestly stand back from any given situation and view it objectively." In doing so, she has eliminated some friends that were very insincere. Also, she has taken to helping others at the same time. When she sees someone that is unhappy with what they are doing in their life, she is able to stand by them and help them.
You would be so proud of her. She has befriended a girl who was pregnant at 15 and lost the baby. The local boys called this girl names, and girls would not be her friend. Rose has helped her with her pain because she was abandoned, too. This girl now works a job and is going to leave for college next fall. Her grades are just below Rose's grades (which, by the way. are a 3.5). We are all so proud that Rose has befriended this girl.
As I just told you Rose is a 3.5, and she will graduate next year because we had trouble with the school system here. First they lost all records of Rose last year. Nine weeks into the school year and about 200 calls from us, and she finally was placed into an alternative program because all classes were full. This school was terrible, Rose was placed with pregnant girls and gang-related guys;" most of them in trouble with the law. Would you believe they were afraid of Rose? They were because she had no use for the ones that break the law, and it showed. She looked at them with contempt; so they thought she was crazy and avoided her. The girls were okay. but she didn't fit in because all they talked about was sex, and Rose wasn't interested in participating in their conversations. But, to make a long story short, the school started teaching sex education, and Rose couldn't handle it at all. This was't normal sex education: they were teaching the students how to keep their partner erect and how to have safe oral sex, etc. Rose could not handle it. When we requested she be excused from that particular class, she was denied the right to stay away from that class. We let her skip school for a while to get her into a new school, so she lost last year completely. After she was out of that school, we found out that in her cumulative folder with the District, it states that she is not to be enrolled in any sex education classes, whatsoever. This was ordered by a court when she was raped. (The court ordered this because they were afraid that the trauma of sex education for her would be just too much and could cause serious results.) It did, and with her strong will, she overcame it.
I will give you a description of Rose so you will be able to picture her, yourself. She is 5'8" tall, weighs 175, has long blond hair down to her waist, green eyes, and a smile that is just so very wonderful. Her smile comes from deep inside and shows the beauty within. I will provide a picture as soon as possible, as it might be nice to have one on the website since it shows that she has healed.
Rose said to thank you for the wonderful site and to tell you that it has been a place to go and remember, yet feel something of beauty out of her pain. Her site has given her many relaxing moments when she felt she needed to remember yet to see beauty out of the ashes. That is how she describes this site: Beauty out of ashes. You did it -- you made something rise above the pain for her -- all of us thank you for that.
SIGNALS: A Sexual Abuse Alert List
A Letter from Pat to the Webmistress
Innocence Lost Website: Awards & Things - Page 1 of 3
Innocence Lost Website: Awards & Things - Page 2 of 3
Innocence Lost Website: Awards & Things - Page 3 of 3
MAY GOD RICHLY BLESS YOU!
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