I have been doing well. Even tonight, I'm partially OK. But, there are moments where my mind makes me stop and notice things that I just wish I didn't. The car the drives by slowly as I'm leaving the house, the chatter of people outside my house on a dark street, coworkers that seem on the level but your gut instincts tells you other wise. Paranoia, fear, anxiety, irrational behavior...call it whatever you want. But no one knows what it's like to live in the home they were arrested after their gone. To have to continue working after the media has pasted you home, your address, and God help you, your family in the media. The scrutinizing eyes, the stares, the rude comments, and that feeling of just wanting it be like it always has but in one day, one moment, everything changed. I keep thinking how he walked out of that door for the last time. Ate his last meal at his childhood home. He'll never see our pets again. I worry what if his parents pass away. I know he'd want to give his respects to those that raised him.

People don't get that this family is the same family they've lived next to for years. We have not changed. Yes, someone in our home made a mistake. We as human beings do that. We are not condoning his behavior or excusing away his mistakes. But he is FAMILY. People are so quick to judge with only knowing what the media sensationalizes. They don't know the person or the actual facts behind the arrest. People want to shun, fear, ridicule, and abuse the person convicted. But what they don't understand is that this can happen to anyone.

Fact is, your child could grow up to be a sex offender. Period. Regardless of the church you follow, the schools you attend, the neighborhood you are raised in, the amount of money in your bank account, and so on. There is no one person that this happens to. It just happens. You as the family have to decide to fight or flee. I honestly don't understand how people can abandon their children or loved ones when something like this happens. Yes, it's tragic. Yes, it's humiliating. And yes, there is a stigma that trumps all others. But they are your flesh and blood.

People will not be kind. And living in this hell is not easy. But, could YOU live with YOURSELF if you ran away? Just move across the country and start over as if they never existed? The person you grew up with, lived with, for years. Just one day because they made a mistake that embarrassed you or caused you an inconvenience, could you just leave?

I hate this house now. This neighborhood, this town. Yes, it will always be my home. Yes, I still have kind neighbors and friends here. But it's those that don't get it that have ruined it. YOU that drive by slowly when we are outside or in the driveway, YOU that have known us for years and yet treat us with leering eyes and crooked smiles, YOU who consider yourself a friend and yet cannot be bothered to make sure we are OK or that we are safe. To YOU...I say good luck, and God bless. I'm not going anywhere. Deal with it.