ABSTRACT
As a teenager, Christie began to come to terms with the fact that her childhood may not have been ideal, but that it was over. She also started to appreciate that both she and Daniel have attention deficits, probably genetically, and certainly aggravated by their chaotic and abusive early lives. Although never adopted, after several moves, Christie is living in long-term foster care very satisfactorily. She has worked for years with a therapist who has been able to help her close some of the chapters of her former life. While she does not throw away the key to those chapters, they are, nevertheless, put away and locked up, enabling her to move forward more successfully. She eventually connected with a caring occupational therapist who mentors her as well as helping her with her sensory integration difficulties. School was not Christie’s greatest achievement, but she did stay through GCSEs and subsequently has been able to go to college, learning to become a book-keeper, as her facility with numbers stayed with her throughout her school years.
