Judy and Marissa still live in the house across the street from one of my parent’s houses, next door to where Lupita lived until recently. Their family was already there when our family had our house built on the empty lot across the street. I think my sister was three and I was eleven. I babysat both Judy’s daughters and had what I thought was a good relationship with Judy.

We got our Thanksgiving gravy from Judy’s husband, her parents stayed in my parent’s guest bedroom when they came to visit. She gave us vegetables from her garden and my mom and I dressed her up and did her makeup for a special dinner, my mom helped stencil roses in her dining room. Yes, there was an obvious friendship that extended beyond the normal hi-and-goodbye neighbors. We trusted them, they trusted us, which makes it harder to swallow the betrayal they inflicted upon us.

Judy was originally the person that my sister confided in about her pregnancy. She asked her not to say anything, but the first thing Judy did was run to Lupita. And, Lupita took it from there, promptly sending her sons to move my sisters things over to her house, without my sister even agreeing to do so. Judy’s character can be described as weak, a follower that worked too many long hours to give her daughters whatever they wanted. Judy told me a lot of things about herself and her rebellious stage growing up and she lent an ear when I needed to talk out my confusion about coming into womanhood. She told me how her father had to go get her and bring her home after she got into “drugs” when she was living in California, and I knew of her affair with a married man and the conception of her eldest daughter, she definitely had her fair share of making bad decisions.

After I found out about the adoption, what Lupita did, the situation was still unfolding, and I couldn’t hold back the way I felt for one more second. Being that we had been so close, I was so dumbfounded to learn that Judy had any part in it. But she did, and I called her on it.

Overcome with emotion, I called her on the phone; asking her how she could do such a thing, did she even know what this had done to our whole family, how could she look us in the eye after having done such an awful thing. Her daughter Marissa was on the other extension, trying to defend her mom and her deceitful actions, as if they had a leg to stand on. What they did was dirty, but still they tried to justify it. I remember myself hysterical, wanting to jump through the phone. Not surprisingly, I had a few not-so-nice things to say, but never once did I threaten them, I simply told them how I felt and what disgusting people they were. But the story doesn’t end there.

They actually had the audacity to call the police and what a surprise, good ol’ Elliot County jumped on the chance to issue an arrest warrant for ME, which I didn’t find out until I went for a visit and the police were investigating a missing turkey, yes a missing turkey, near a house I had spent the night at. I thought I was being ‘punked.’ They arrested me, I posted bail, and was given a date to come back for court.

To this day, I feel I did NOTHING wrong, so I made a phone call to people who I had known for twenty years and told them how I felt. I guess the truth hurt them so much they had to try to make themselves look good by smashing salt into our open wound, it wasn’t enough they took part in this clandestine adoption. Our family obviously hadn’t suffered enough, now it was ME who was on trial for something so ridiculous as a phone call, yet Lupita sold our baby away from her ticket window. What a great DA with impeccable judgment, anything to take the focus off what the issue really was.

So I went to court, missing my daughter’s eighth grade graduation to go defend MY name. Seeing Judy and Marissa, and Lupita at the window, mere feet from where I was being tried and questioned made me dizzy. It took every ounce of self-restraint I had not to completely go postal on these horrible people. 

When I was finally before a judge, I never denied calling them, why should I have to, I never threatened them, I merely told them they were garbage and how could they do such a thing. The judge looked at me and I could tell he didn’t want to be hearing what I was saying. There was no order that was in place stating that I couldn’t call them, but because I never denied having made that ONE phone call, he gave me the most lenient punishment of one day in jail, suspended so I wouldn’t have to actually go spend the day in jail. Thank goodness I was able to clear my name completely.

What justice.

All that these people had done and I was the one being held accountable for A phone call, as in ONE call I placed to them. Sounds like a joke, but it’s not. I told the judge I had no interest in ever speaking to them again, that they were trash, and I wanted nothing to do with them. They helped to set this unnecessary adoption in motion and all they got was a phone call, how did they ever make it through such a horrific thing …. I hope that phone call didn’t land them in therapy for the next ten years. It’s so ludicrous, I don’t know which it makes me do, laugh or get mad.

Really, I’M the criminal in this scenario?

Give me a break.

I utterly despise Judy and Marissa. They stuck a knife in our backs so eagerly after so many years of trust and friendship. I can only hope that they are given the same courtesy they bestowed upon us, that their hearts will be torn out by a friendly face when they least expect it.  

They certainly have no room to talk when it comes to family situations, or scandals, so the finger they point at our family for the small incidents we ever had is just plain stupid. They have a lot of nerve thinking they’re superior to anyone. I pray that with every misfortune they have they will be reminded that what goes around comes around, no matter how long it takes. I hope God shows them every tear we’ve cried and that they too will face a trauma so deep they can barely get out of bed. They should be ashamed of themselves. They cannot be trusted as friends or neighbors, and I hope they’ll keep their blinds shut tight like they have since this all happened. I hope being in their own home makes them uncomfortable, as they try to save face.

I don’t ever want to lay eyes on them ever again, they are absolute garbage.