Who Were These People?

I use the term "parents" loosely because I don't consider those people to be my parents. My younger brother and I went to live with them and their two biological children when I was three. He was 19 months old. Our adoption wasn't final until I was twelve for some reason, and I've never gotten a straight answer from anyone, including the state foster care/adoption system. 

He and I were foster children for nine years, and we had few, if any, case-worker visits after we were dropped off for the first time. I am a supporter of adoption and foster parenting, but my own experience in the system didn't turn out so well. I suffered physical abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, and medical neglect as a foster/adopted child.

The "parents" were the "good on paper" kind. Nice house, married, two kids already, big yard, stable income, and avid churchgoers. As if church attendance means anything. What wasn't apparent to anyone outside of the home was new mommy's temper and pathological insecurity. As it turns out, she was crazier than a shithouse rat. New dad was not home much and missed most of the insanity.

I have come to realize that they were likely malignant narcissists. Combine that with the sanctimony of being Southern Baptists in the Deep South, and there was no way I would get out of there without some serious damage.

And I didn't.