From Mackenzie: "My most challenging experience in the foster care system was being take away from my birth mother. I lived with her for 15 years and although I can't say that she raised me because she really didn't, I was still very close to her. I was so young an naive.I had a lot of anger built up inside of me, especially towards my foster mom and everyone else who was involved in my case. Being taken away from her was the hardest thing in my life. In the beginning of my placement in foster care I could not understand why I was taken away, I mean I lived with her for 15 years and I thought I was doing just fine. Now I sit back and think about all of the things my mom put my brother and I through. The drugs, the violence, homelessness, the danger, all of those things she made us witness. It took me a long time to realize that being taken away from her probably saved our lives"