Chicken, Cake and I Do

And so it begins.........

The tumultuous trauma ridden, yet victorious story of a young girl born out of wedlock to a young interracial couple in Akron, Ohio, in the late 1970's. Tamara's biological mother had no plans on becoming a young single parent, but with no assistance from the child's father and very little education, she had no means to support her child. Eventually the young mom and had to make the unthinkable decision of relinquishing custody and giving her only child up for adoption at the tender age of three years old, leaving Tamara to be adopted into and raised in a Caucasian household.

Perhaps this story is how Tamara survived a childhood, where the trauma of her adoption left her searching for a place in this world to belong and call home, with a family of her own, or perhaps it's a story that accounts for her survival. From enduring abuse and neglect from birth, to trying to fit into a world where she never truly felt like she belonged, Tamara spent the majority of her life searching for herself and a place to belong while simultaneously piecing together the tattered shards of her family.

Tamara endures poverty, homelessness, teenage motherhood, sexual assault, that culminated in an addiction that ravaged her family over the course of 2 decades.

This story embodies resilience, never allowing your circumstances to dictate your outcome while learning from your mistakes, and most of all, the power of a mothers love.