Once An Orphan

Born Tiera Rice, at two weeks old, @Tiera-Marie was sold for $10,000 and an 8 ball; her name was changed to Candice Flores. Truth didn't come until she was 15 years old, when she learned her "parents" weren't her parents and her biological mother was in jail for murder. As the result of her aunt's heavy drug addiction, she was commodity and became the exchange.

Most times we hear about domestic abuse, it's assumed that the woman is victim. Pastor Michael Neely from the New Millennium Community Church of Tampa, Florida discusses why he was abused, how it started, why he stayed.

Toni made the very tough decision to pull her son off of life support after the doctors informed he would only live in a vegetative state after suffering the abuse of his own father. Witnessing the events that led to Mikkah's death was his 12-year old brother, who saw the 13-month old's father swinging the toddler by his neck. Yes, justice was served, as he will now serve life without parole, plus...

Imagine wanting to have a good time and deciding to try pills for fun. Now, you're addicted to those pills, heroin, crack, cocaine and fentanyl. If that's not bad enough, your criminal life, involving prostitution, sends you straight to jail, but only AFTER your fiance calls you in. Getting booked, you find out, "You're pregnant" and your life changes, but for better or worse? Sarah tells her stor...

What's the real story behind Alexis Miranda Badger going missing? From the @Netflix documentary, Cathy Terkanian shares how she put her blood, sweat and tears into proving that her only daughter was murdered by her adoptive male figure. A rapist and predator, Dennis Bowman had a history of sexually assaulting little girls, even as young as 6 years old. Lying for years, Dennis literally got away wi...

The state of Michigan placed Corey with a white family who adopted him. If that wasn't traumatic enough, they then removed Corey from the home, saying he should be with a Black family, and the Quinn's sued the state to regain custody while he went from home to home. At this point in his life, he says why it's necessary to completely detach himself from the Irish Catholic people he's always called...

You may know him as Andre Farnell, but Andre Van Lun, has unbelievably defied all odds. Placed in foster care at 18 months with his new born brother, he has survived the worst of times. With the help of therapy, mentorships, conferences and several workshops, Mr. Van Lun put himself through an entire hollistic healing. He shares with me his foster care experience and how life could have left him a...

Koko, @theblackadoptea and I spoke about her adoption story. She found her biological mother who wanted nothing to do with her, still leaving her with a million questions. Is it really too much to ask when you just want to know? But can we truly understand when the conception was the result of a sexual assault as a teenager? Koko open shares her story, which is how we heal each time we speak about...

Young and looking for acceptance led Genesis Asiatic to a life of crime. After 23 years in society, he tells his story in his own words of why and how he chose this life and served a 23 year prison sentence. This is his story in his words.

At the tender age of 15, like most teens, Teela faced some challenging social issues, which caused her to have panic attacks. Not uncommon, right? Well, after a visit to the doctor, she was given a subscription for Xanax, and life began to spiral out of control. Meet Teela, The Sober Entreprenuer.

Ms. Gabriela Hernandez survived a case of "I never saw it coming." We can also call it a case of "Who The Bleep Did I Marry? @investigationdiscovery Telling her story shows how courageous and resilient she is. She didn't fall from the first hit, but it took more than 10 and she's still here. She loved him, forgave him, and leveled with him over and over. After beating her with a bat, he still wasn...

Author, Tammy Leavy, is a survivor. He wasn't her stepfather, but indeed, a monster and the man her mother married. Molested and raped in "every hole" of her body, she felt suicidal but found the strength to fight back physically and still has the scars to prove it. After her mother suffered a work related injury, he knew he could take full advantage of every moment with Tammy because his wife was...

This former fostered youth/adoptee got dealt cards from a hand no one could play. She, in fact, had to play, but how did she do it? How did she overcome one traumatic event after another? In her self written memoir titled, Everyone Will Know It Was God, Sana explains what led to these events and how she would overcome. It started at age 4, when she was being sex trafficked by her mother and grandm...

Imagine the man who replaced your father, assumed to be the one protecting you, also being the one who "groomed" you. He groomed his stepdaughter into becoming comfortable being molested, sodomized and raped. Stories like this...

TikTok's Jae Honey shares the story of how her life changed forever in April of 2020. When the entire globe was trying to survive Covid, her 18 year-old daughter was murdered execution style by someone she thought was a friend. The loss of this family member had a major impact. Jae, along with two of her other children, attempted suicide, unable to deal with the pain. In her book, Six Minutes of F...

This was the thing we didn't know we needed. Black and adopted? This community gathering meant so much to us.

Miss Eugenia Doreen Wallace speaks on life growing up in poverty to early high school graduation and early college admission. Being removed from her family and placed in foster care, she didn't allow her circumstances to make her another statistic. She overcame all odds and serves as a foster youth advocate, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, AND Miss Black Missouri, USA. Follow her on Instagram...