"Someone was hurt before you.....beaten before you; humiliated before you; raped before you; yet someone survived."
~Maya Angelou

After being sexually abused as a child and dealing with that, little did I realize that my life would be torn apart yet again. After experiencing the sexual abuse in my youth I didn't think much, if anything could effect me as much as it did. But when false allegations involving my very own daughter, and the man I loved, my world went spinning out of control once again.

As I shared before, right after high school I got married and had my 2 children, I was only 18. Things were good at first, he was a good man, but after we had children things started to change. By 1998 we had seperated, the marriage was "on the rock" as they say.

We seperated and for about a year our children's custody bounced between the two of us. It wasn't an ideal situation but it was working. That is until his girlfriend interferred in our affairs that turned our lives upside down.

I'm still not sure what happened, but one day while I was resting before getting ready for work I heard a knock on the door. To my surprise it was my ex's girlfriend telling me I needed to come with her. Try as I might, she wouldn't tell me what was going on, only that I should come to her house. I get there and the house was in total chaos! Of course my thoughts were running wild. Had someone been hurt? What could have happened?

After being there a few minutes I feel some relief. My children were there and they are fine. Aside from my children being hurt or missing I thought I could handle anything.

Sitting there with everyone gathered around her was my 5 year old daughter. My ex is prodding her to tell me what had happened. She was like a clam and didn't say a word. By then I was furious and demanded that someone had better tell me what was going on, and now. Finally my ex's girlfriend says that my boyfriend had sexually abused my daughter! I was speechless and thought at first that I might faint.

I couldn't believe this. Even though I had a medical condition going on and wasn't having "relations", there was no way he could or would ever hurt a child.

I can't remember exactly what was said but I do remember calling my boyfriend and he denied it. To this day he denies it. The question that hung in the air that day was, if the accusations are true, why didn't my ex and his girlfriend call child protective services? If this was true why did they wait until the next day? If it were true why wait until I got there and make a big scene out of everything?

The false allegations happened between 1998-1999. My boyfriend was charged with the abuse and spent time in jail (45 days). He had to plead out to a misdemeanor (sex abuse in the 3rd). I had to give up my children because CPS was going to accuse me of being a neglectful mother.

Now, from what I gather from current phone calls with my children their stepmother (former girlfriend) is not a very nice person and they don't want to live with her anymore. My son wants to be emancipated, I have offered to allow him to come live with me and my husband (boyfriend) when it comes time. My daughter has said that she was sorry for putting us through so much trouble. She told me some of what happened back then but she wouldn't tell me much more.

She wants to talk to my husband but it is expected that my husband isn't ready to talk to her just yet. My husband and I moved to Florida to get away from the “domination” of my ex's wife. I hated to move away from the children but they know the reasons why I left and that I'm a phone call away if they need me.

My husband and I are both happy that we moved. I no longer have contact with my parents, even though I hear from my mother's friends and that she wishes to talk to me. I have told them where I'm at, the ball is in her court if she wishes to talk to me that bad. She should make the first call.

I wish I had a nice, happily ever after, ending, but I don't. There is one thing I do have to say that during the whole time I was being abused by my father I often asked God why, why does this have to happen to me? The only possible answer that I could come up with is that eventually I could share my story with others. And maybe help someone going through a similar situation.

It's not an easy story to tell, I'll admit. Forgiveness is important,even during the abuse from my father I would often pray for his forgiveness for what he did. But he always came back for more.

I would even ask for forgiveness for myself for allowing myself for being so accessible to him. I do hope that this story has helped some of you and I do encourage you to open up if possible about what has happened in your life. If it can't be a loved one, then a therapist, or some other professional that can help you out. If someone is abusing you, tell! Tell someone now!