When I was little I stayed at a women’s shelter with my mom and younger brother while we took literal actions to kick my dad out of the house for being an abusive man. I’ve mentioned that shelter anytime I’ve spoken about my past just in case someone else is in the same situation

They had counselors to figure out what’s going on and how the abuse is/has affected the child. I didn’t know how to communicate what I saw because i thought it was “normal.” It was until they saw my drawings that they saw my thoughts and they gave me my first set of art supplies

They highly encouraged me to pursue my creativity and i took off from there. I needed to draw everything and draw every day.
Eventually my dad was stripped from his citizenship and deported to Mexico but I never forgot what that shelter did for me and my family.

Cut to many years later @SheaSerrano and I are working on a newsletter and he mentions donating the money we make from it to a charity. Told him about genesis.

“Bang. That’s where it’s going.”

We got to do something that’s been in my heart for years.

The even crazier thing about this is that some of y’all have donated and made in my name or mentioned the FOH. When they told me this at our first meeting I broke down. Y’all have loved me and my own family so much that y’all have been secretly given to the place that saved us.

That trophy will be in my home and may my name but its here as a reminder of the courageous women that are so brave to say no more of this abuse. that they are more valuable than that and that violence against women is absolutely not okay. My mother was strong for fighting back