Our family continues its weekly counseling sessions at the Stern house. Part of my healing involves the acceptance of what happened to my child. With acceptance I have grown to understand that healing will take hard work. My major concern was for my child's emotional health and development. The abuse took its toll on him. However, with his healing comes my healing. Things have improved. I have worked hard toward this end by seeing that we both attend our weekly therapy sessions. I will be eternally grateful for the support our counselors gave to the family and their progress in working with my child.
In the healing process, I realized that I have to forgive others. This has not come easy and I'm not all the way there. However, I know that forgiveness is necessary for my own recovery; hatred is a festering wound. Forgiveness does not mean that I excuse or condone the abuse that was perpetuated against my child. It does not mean that I will ever forget what happened. Perhaps it is more of a letting go of the pain and moving on with our lives.
As a result of what happened to my child and our experience in the court system, I have vowed to put up a fight--it is also part of my healing. I want to keep the issue of child sexual abuse in the public eye to help educate everyone. That is why I have written this account and why I will continue to address this issue in a public forum. I also want to work toward change in how the justice system in New York City handles child sexual abuse victims. The thought that perpetrators can be released back into society so easily because children do not make good witnesses is unacceptable to me.
