I was also furious. Cara and I had talked about birth control. I felt it was irresponsible of her to get pregnant, and I was deeply concerned about both her and the child's health because Cara had been taking illegal drugs. What else can go wrong? I asked myself. All of our lives had been hell since Cara hit puberty, with her heavy drug use, a relationship with an abusive boyfriend – and now this.
I tried to understand where things had gone wrong. Cara had a good childhood; we were a loving family. For a while, I stayed home to look after my three kids, and when I returned to work, I was always around when they came home from school. Cara's twin brother, Simon, was her best friend. My husband and her father, Reg, was her basketball coach. Sounds perfect, doesn't it? Simon and my other daughter, Olivia (now 15), were both doing really well academically and excelling in their extracurricular activities. I asked myself, What did I do differently with Cara? But I couldn't come up with any answers.
During that time of reflection, I realized that I had a lot of growing up to do myself. I had to let go of my dreams for Cara and accept that she would always walk her own path. I had to realize that no matter how far down the wrong path she had gone, I would always be there for her.
When Cara was a small child, there was no sign of the trouble to come. She did well in school, sports and the performing arts. She just loved life. When Cara turned 12, though, she changed, seemingly overnight. She would come home from school and go right to her room. She didn't want to talk to any of us – not to Reg, Simon, Olivia or me.
Cara began sneaking out of the house at night when she was 13, and I discovered that she was smoking and drinking. When I knew for sure that she was using marijuana several times a day, my husband and I put her in a drug treatment centre. But there she was introduced to even harder drugs, and met her abusive boyfriend.
In Grade 9, Cara dropped out of school. She came home from a friend's house one day with burns all over her hands. She had passed out with a cigarette between her fingers. Another time, I came home from work to find a butcher knife on my dressing table. It was a warning from Cara's drug dealer that she owed money. I feared for all our lives. I called the Children's Aid Society and pleaded with them, saying, "I don't know what to do. My daughter is going to die if she doesn't get some help." That's when Cara went to live in a group home, before moving in with her boyfriend.
Page 1 of 4 - See what happens when Cara decides on keeping her baby on page 2.
