Tell Us About Yourself, Alicia
Hi, I’m Alicia. I moved here to Atlanta in 2003 with my 2 boys. I was a single mom and I moved here for work. I got a great job opportunity and moved and I subsequently started my own business. In 2006, I took in my sister’s 3 children, and they were little and had medical issues. At that point I had to give up my business and change my whole life to take care of the children.
Tell Us About Your Experience With North Fulton Community Charities?
We were directed to North Fulton Community Charities to give us help in the interim. We came in and I did my interview and everybody here was so terrific. I was so embarrassed to even have to go to a food bank and even ask for help. I had never had to do that before. And then I got here and everybody was just so nice and they helped me to immediately get some food. They also got me set up for clothes because having just acquired children I had nothing, and one of them was an infant. I hadn’t had infants in years so I had no baby stuff. I had nothing. They helped me out with diapers. They helped me out with formula. They directed me where to go get WIC. They got us set up with food for the children and clothing out of the thrift store for the children. In 2015, I acquired a new little guy, one of my other sister’s children. I took him in, it was supposed to be temporary, but 6 months turned into a year, turned into.. he’s turning 7 now and we got him when he was 4. And he has been our most difficult challenge of my children. We actually wound up adopting the 4 children, the sibling group of 4, back in 2009. Of those one is medically fragile and 2 are on the autism spectrum because they were prenatally exposed to drugs and alcohol. So the little guy has been our most difficult challenge. Apparently his mother decided to do IV drugs while pregnant. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do, you know, I guess I’m trying to save the world, or at least a tiny little piece of the community and if it wasn’t for North Fulton Community Charities I sincerely couldn’t do it.
