From Foster Care to Published Author: D’Mya’s Story of Faith & Resilience
Hi, Dream Makers Community!
We’re back this month with the last installment in our summer series, “Stories of Hope.” We pray that you’ve been encouraged and inspired by Alexandria and Aaron’s stories. They represent the courage, resilience, determination, and compassion we see in so many of you! As you step into the fall, remember that your dreams matter and that every big and small step you take towards them is success! We’re so proud of you. Keep going!
D’Mya was two years old when she was placed in the foster care system. Change was the only constant as she moved from foster care to kinship care, then back to foster care, finally aging out of a group home at twenty-one. The disruption and abuse she experienced along the way took it’s toll on her mind, heart, soul, and body, but by the grace of God, she received meaningful mentorship in her late teens that prepared her well for independence. She left the group home with her associate’s degree a pending bachelor’s degree, a furnished apartment, a car, and stable employment. “God arranged everything right on time,” she reflected.
It was during her traumatic nine years in kinship care, that D’Mya found her voice and a love for writing. Expressing her pain in the form of letters to her birth mom helped her to process her hurts, share her story, and begin healing from the trauma she’d experienced. Those letters gave birth to a passion and purpose that went beyond writing for her own healing. She now felt the call of God to share the life-changing truths she’d discovered and write for the healing and empowerment of others. D’Mya’s first poem, entitled R.I.P., was widely circulated to her high school, bringing inspiration to her peers and drawing attention to the often harsh realities of foster care. In addition to many poems, she has written five books, two of which are now published.
D’Mya found Dream Makers online and took a step of faith to reach out to us for support. Through the generosity of a donor, she was able to get 200 copies of her book, It Is So, printed for distribution.
D’Mya said, “When my dream was fulfilled, I just knew this was an indication that my life was shifting...I knew that El Roi, the God who sees, remembered me!”
D’Mya serves as a Program Assistant for a non-profit and is a Behavioral Technician at a center for people with autism. She also owns her own consulting firm and continues to establish herself as an author. Guided by unwavering faith in God and a deep commitment to others, she is witnessing her own healing transform past trauma and inspire change in the lives of those around her.
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