I’m an outgoing person. I love ice cream. I love to dress up. I love high heels. I love to dance. And I am HIV-positive.

At birth, I was taken away from my mother due to the fact she was mentally unstable. I grew up in group homes. It was fun living with my own age group, with only one or two housemothers around. We had lots of fun. At quiet moments, I used to stare out the window and think where I’d be in the next five or ten years’ time.

As time went on, I was put in a foster home where I was badly abused. It was a difficult time for me, the hardest of my life. I felt like my childhood had been taken away from me. Eventually, I was taken out of that home and placed into another. Luckily, my new foster mother treated me like a real daughter, like I was a precious egg.

Then, sadly, she passed away, and my life turned upside down. I was put in another foster home where, once again, I was met with abuse. In my fear, anxiety, and depression, I turned to drugs and alcohol. I just took it until I couldn’t take it anymore. Eventually, I spoke up and was removed from that home.

That is when, in 2008, I found out I was HIV-positive. I continued using alcohol and drugs, and I had two children. The first one I gave up for adoption because I felt my life was so upside down I couldn’t look after her. The second one I decided to keep because I was a bit more mature. And I saw life from a different perspective. The day the doctor put her in my arms, I fell in love with her.

On the first of January 2016, I decided to change my life. I decided to give my heart to the Lord. Many things changed for me. Now I have so many opportunities to do things I’ve never done before. I feel like it’s just been a turnaround in my life and I’m so excited to tell my story, I’m so excited to just get it out there.