When I was first taken away and placed into foster care, the weight of the situation and of my deep sorrow was so overwhelming that I didn't have a single clue how to cope with any of it. I even remember threatening to kill myself within the first few hours if “they didn’t let me go back with my mom.” I was terrified, hurt, scared, lonely, and felt utterly lost and unheard. I was twelve years old. In the midst of the utter heartache and bleeding sorrow, though, there was one thing that managed to help me take my mind out of the present situation and put it somewhere that wasn’t so awful - reading.
Throughout the course of my time in foster care, I had read so many books it would be impossible for me to even attempt to list every title that saved me from my reality. There is one book that stood out among the rest, though - this book humbled me, comforted me, tugged at my heart strings, gave me hope, helped me cry some things out and not feel guilty about it, and in a lot of ways helped me begin to move forward towards healing. This book is Three Little Words by Ashley Rhoudes-Courter.
Three Little Words is a book courageously written by a woman who had to live through some of the most devastating situations anyone - child or adult - could even imagine. From one kind of abuse to another, Ashley grew up in the foster care system in Florida experiencing trauma after trauma, being hurt as a child in ways that not even most adults would be able to fathom and cope with. The book paints a picture of a little girl just trying to be a little girl, but having adult after adult and peer after peer rob her of the innocence and joy that every child has a right to possess for as long as possible. Throughout the course of this book we are allowed to follow Ashley on her journey of explaining the details of her traumas and how she remembers the effect they had on her both as a child and as an adult. Her entire story is eloquently written and so intricate in its details that you feel not only enthralled by the story but almost as if you’re watching it happen before your eyes. The way a popular movie can pull you in and capture your heart in an instant is truthfully no match for how Ashley’s life story will leave you feeling in the end.
Three Little Words isn’t just a good read, it is a necessary read. This book gifts you with a newfound intuition and compassion for the children who are forced to grow up in foster care.This book is a necessary read for anyone who is open to being humbled and encouraged to help develop the good in the world and dull the evil. This book is real, Ashley is real, her story is real, the pain she felt is real, the pain foster children in general feel is real, and more importantly - the impact you can make on a child in the foster care system is very, very real. Raw and relentless, Three Little Words is told exactly how it should be - the way it happened. When I first read this book, I was fourteen years old and living in my fourth foster home.
My foster sister had let me borrow it from her, telling me that our math teacher gave it to her and that she thought I would really enjoy it. I read it cover to cover, and said to myself, “I want to be an Ashley.” What did that mean, exactly? Well, I wanted to be victorious, I wanted to thrive in the face of torment, and I wanted to end up being Ok - and that was what Three Little Words had encouraged in my broken, young heart. Hope, bravery, and perseverance. It had helped me acknowledge all that I had already accomplished and overcame and helped me see all that I could do to continue to heal and help and be better. Three Little Words gave me a comfort that no other book had ever given me before.
So, as you can see, this book is a treasure that anyone can possess. I’ve had my friends read it, my mentors, family, everyone I could think of, and you know what? They all took away something precious from it. I leave you with this - allow yourself to experience the greatness that is Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter , for it will awaken within you the goodness that you already have, and encourage you to nurture it and use it to help those who need it the most.
Owner/Editor - Chris Chmielewski