It was January 9, 1986 at 6:04pm. Stephanie Marie Bohart was born. My mother was just 14 years old, and supposedly my father was 16. I say "supposedly" because I have never met my biological father. From what I hear, he says I was not his because I was born with black hair and his was blonde. Because my mother was so young, my grandma, Sharon, was going to make her put me up for adoption. But once I was born and my grandma saw me, she said she couldn't do it.
I was the first child of three. My mother had my brother, Sean Micheal, when she was 16 years old. At 18, she had my brother, Joshua Edward, and married the father of those two. His name is Ted, and if I ever refer to "Dad" in any of my posts, I am talking about this man. He and his family have taken me in as thier own and I am forever greatful to them.
After a few years, my mom and dad were divorced and we moved in with my grandma. From then on, even when my mom moved out, I lived with my grandma until she passed away. My childhood up until that point was pretty average. I lived on a street with all boys, so I did alot of tree climbing, playing sports, bike riding, etc. Nothing unusual for the most part.
In 1994, four days before my 8th birthday, my life began to change. On January 5th, my brother Sean passed away. He was just 6 years old. To make a long story short (or as short as possible), he was born with cerebral palsy. My mom had a C-section, the doctor pulled him out, suctioned him, then my brother slipped back in and almost drowned. I suppose that is what caused the brain damage. He couldn't walk or talk. He actually was just beginning to say things like "mama", "dada", and "baba" and be able to pull himself up to stand while holding onto the couch right before he passed away. Because of this, he had to have a special climber crib. It's pretty much like a baby crib, just bigger. It was supposed to come with a plastic top so that he couldn't climb out but it wasn't approved for him. The first day he had it, he fell out and broke his elbow. My mom tried to have the top approved again since it was a safety issue but it was still denied. Someone had told my mom about this netting stuff that you are supposed to tie around railings so that babies don't stick their head through the slits. It had a bunch of holes around the sides so that it could be tied down. This was what we used as a top to the bed for two years until the day my brother passed away. My mom had laid him down for a nap and when she went to wake him up for lunch, she found him hanging from the net. She said it looked like he had tried to get out, but got caught. This was the first life changing event for me. I took it very hard and wouldn't even go to school (willingly) for quite some time. As I look back on it, I definately wouldn't have the situation take place the same way. I would give anything to have my brother here with me today, but I do try to make it as positive as it can be. I know he wouldn't want it any other way.
Life went on as normal as it could have for a while. February 16, 1997 was the next day that changed my life. My grandma passed away from a heart attack. It was obviously completely unexpected. And as I said before, from the age of maybe 6 until she passed away, I lived with her. Luckily, the night she passed, I was staying the night at a friends house. I was supposed to be grounded for not cleaning my room, but my grandma let me go if I promised to clean it when I got back. I believe that this happened for a reason, so that I wouldn't be there when she passed.
Those have been the hardest two things that have happened to me. I miss them both ALOT! After this, I kind of bounced around living with a few different people. I lived with my mom and her boyfriend for a while. After they split, my mom and I lived with my Aunt Cathy. By this point, my brother Josh was living with our dad. I eventually lived with my grandparents (my moms dad and his wife). Then I went back to living with my mom and her new husband. Things were definately rough from then on out, from age 14 up until I was about 17 years old.
My mom married a guy named Allen. Eventually we both discovered that he was a severe alcoholic and became very violent when he was drunk. During this time, I myself also drank and smoked weed. I was pretty much allowed to do whatever I wanted. I hope I don't make my mother angry if she were to ever read this, but I am going to be very honest in my blogs, as I believe that everyone should always be honest. Through those years, Allen beat my mother several times and was in and out of jail for domestic violence, yet she still kept going back to him. Allen also hit me once in the face over a slice of bread, when all I did was ask his daughter to save me a piece. We rarely had food in the house, and when we did, it was stuff from the Free Store. I can even recall a day where I was outside hanging out with some friends. I hate to admit it now, but one of them sold drugs. Crack cocaine to be exact. I was hungry, and there was no food in the house. A car pulled up wanting to buy some, so the guy told me that he didn't know them, didn't know if they were cops, etc. But if I walked up to the car and gave them what they wanted, he would split the money with me so that I could get me something to eat. They wanted $20 worth, so I did it, and made $10. I still remember to this day.....I walked up to Gold Star and ordered Chili Cheese Fries and kept the rest so that I could get a pack of cigarettes. My mom and Allen also became addicted to heroin during this time. There were always drug addicts in the house, which were friends of my mom and her husband. It was an eye opening experience to see one of them going through withdrawls. Excessive vomiting, screaming out in pain, diarrhea, chills, shaking. I was very depressed, into drinking and smoking, and eventually dropped out of school in the middle of 10th grade. My mom eventually left Allen and we moved from place to place again. Finally I ended up moving in with Terri, which my dad had married and had my little sister with, but they ended up divorced. Terri and I didn't get along very well during their marriage but now we have a wonderful relationship, although I don't get to see her very much because she lives about 3 hours away. During my stay with her, I decided to go back to school and get my GED. I ended up doing the Job Corp program. I quickly earned my GED, took their business tech program and also became a State Tested Nursing Assistant. After finishing the program, I moved in with my mom and her boyfriend, which is also the guy she is currently with and has been with him for I think 8 years now. Now this is where my mom may get mad at me for posting this, but again, I'm going to be honest. I moved in with them on the agreement that I would pay them $50 a week and buy my own food. They, in return, provided me with a place to live until I could get on my feet and find a job as an STNA. I quickly realized that without a car, I couldn't work as an STNA, as you usually start out on 2nd or 3rd shift. So, my mom and her boyfriend also got me a job working at the factory that they worked, and I rode to and from work with them. They knew that I was saving money for a car and one day said to me that they knew a lady that was a friend of Will's (my mom's boyfriend) dad, and she was selling a 1997 Toyota Carolla for $1500. They said they had seen the car and it was nice, and it was an older lady selling it that just didn't need it, which is why it was so cheap. I was told that if I gave her some money up front, she would hold the car for me, because I only had $800 saved up so far. I could make payments until it was paid off, and then she'd transfer the car into my name and it was mine. I did this, gave them the money to give to his dad, who would give the money to the lady selling the car. I eventually paid off the full $1500. Then came the stories. First, the lady couldn't find the title to the car. Then the place where she had bought the car had closed down so she couldn't get a new title and was looking into what she could do. Then, she didn't know what to do, so she was going to give me my money back. Being 18 years old, I believed this. I knew nothing of the process of transferring a title, etc. Plus, this is coming from my MOTHER. By this time, she was working, was off the drugs, and was doing well. I believed her. But as time passed, and I never got the car, or my money back, I began to wonder. I knew I would never receive either. We eventually had a huge arguement over this, so I moved in with a guy that I had met at work and began dating. He lived with his father at this point, but it wasn't too bad. He is now my husband. During the following months, I was still curious as to what happened with the whole car thing, so just on a whim, I got into my mom's email. I knew her password, so I looked. During the time that I was giving them all this money, they were buying these expensive and fancy beads. They would buy them and make necklaces and bracelets and sell them at the flea market. I know, based on what I saw, that they had to be spending the money that I was giving them. It was just too much for them to afford without doing so. I also saw a couple emails from people off of ebay that were asking my mom and will where their money was. These people selling the beads to my mom and her boyfriend were sending them the stuff, and my mom and Will weren't ever paying. My mom would reply to them with things like "The money order is in the mail, you should be getting it very soon." And it was sad. The guy she sent that to had said something about his daughter was the one that checked the mail so he thinks that she may have taken the money order. Seeing that, I set up an email account and wrote both of these guys. I didn't want him thinking that his child was stealing from him, and I wanted to let the other one know that he wasn't going to ever get his money. At first, I didn't tell them exactly who I was. But in the end, I came out and told them the story of my "car" and who I was. I felt a little bad, but I also didn't want them to ever send any more supplies and lose out on money. These people had families to take care of. So, a couple years go buy, Fred and I moved out of his dad's house into our own apartment and things are going okay. I forgave my mom and was still talking to her. Then one day my mom called me and said, "If Dawn calls you, you don't know where we are." Dawn was a lady that they met while setting up at the flea markets. They had moved in with her and her husband for a while. I asked my mom why she didn't want to talk to Dawn and she told me that they all just had an arguement and didn't want Dawn to know where she was because they moved out and didn't want to fight. So I said okay. Five minutes after hanging up with my mom, Dawn calls. She's asking if I know where my mom and Will are. I say no, and ask why she's looking for them. She told me that her and her husband were gone, and when they came home, all of the stuff that they used to sell at the flea market was gone, their computer was gone, and $1000 was missing and they noticed that all of my mom and Will's stuff was gone. I talked to her for a while and then told her that I'd see if I could find my mom. I hung up the phone and started to cry. I had a decision to make. Do I lie to Dawn and say I don't know where my mom is, or do I call the cops and turn in the woman that gave birth to me for stealing this woman's stuff? I thought about it for a good 20 minutes, before making the hardest decision that I have ever made in my life. I looked up the number to a local police station. I called them and told them the situation and they said they could send out a police officer to the motel that my mom and Will were staying in. I then called Dawn back, told her that I found my mom, that I called the police, and gave her the same number so that she could also call them to explain more in detail what happened. About an hour later, my mom called crying, saying that they had taken Will to jail for not paying child support and gave her a court date or something for some old thing with her writing bad checks. I didn't tell her that I called, and if she's reading this, it's the first time she'll know. She thought Dawn found her somehow. Over the next few weeks, my mom would call but I wouldn't answer. I finally sent her an email, as it would be too hard for me to do over the phone, telling her that I knew what happened with the "car", with Dawn, with the beads and the guys she didn't pay, etc. I asked her to not contact me, because I couldn't have her in my life while she was doing all these bad things to people. I went about 3 years without seeing or speaking to her, until I saw her at my brother's high school graduation. At the end, she called me over, gave me a hug and told me that she loved me. We both cried. She told me that she would email me because she wants back in my life, but I have yet to really receive an email from her. She added me on Facebook, but doesn't really say much. She's asked maybe once or twice how I'm doing, I reply, and then that's it. And I don't want to make her sound like a bad person. I think with my brother passing away, that was really hard on her, which is completely understandable. Since then, she has taken a turn for the worse. And I don't think she would have done all these things if she wasn't with Will. I'm 99% sure that will is the con-artist here. My mom just doesn't have it in her to make stuff up like he does. He is a habitual liar. Says he has a business degree from UC, but yet he was homeless when she met him. Says he inheireted a million dollars from his grandpa and spent it all on drugs. Says he killed a guy and drove around with the guys head in his trunk for weeks. He's a big guy....tall and husky....but he couldn't hurt a fly. He makes up this stuff to make himself look better. And while she may believe him, I don't. I didn't like him years ago, I don't like him today (and I don't even talk to him) and I will never like him. The only good thing about that man in my eyes is that he helped get my mom off of heroin. So, I don't care if he reads this and is pissed off, I don't care if she reads this and is pissed off about what I say about him, it's the truth and I really can't believe that she believes what he says. So anyways, sorry that is so long but that's my past.
A little bit about the current me: I am 24 years old. I'm married to a wonderful man, Fred. He is 35 and has 3 boys from a previous relationship. Freddie is 17, Dakota (Cody) is 14 and Braden (Brady) is 11. We live in an apartment in Anderson Township (Cincinnati, Ohio). I don't have any children of my own but would like some, or atleast one. We have to black cats....Snickers and Kitkat. They are from the same litter. I'm sure I will post some pics of them eventually. We've had them almost 2 years. We were married on June 7, 2008 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We have been together for 5 1/2 years....since August 5, 2004. He works in the maintenence department at the same factory I met him at. I work as an STNA in a nursing home, 7p-7a....just switched jobs actually within the past two weeks but I'm still PRN at my old job. I did go to college for Medical Assisting but that seems to be a waste of time as I am having trouble finding a job, as is everyone else I know from school. Other than that, I'm your average girl.
Again, I am sorry that this is so long. I promise the rest of my blogs won't be so long, but I just wanted to give the history behind me so that my readers know who I am and where I'm coming from. If you have any questions about me, please feel free to ask. I am an open book! Thanks for reading!
