Her low-gifted adoptive parents let Mariël (39) know almost daily that she did not live up to expectations. The foster family where she ended up turned out to be her salvation. “I was a lonely girl with a broken heart.”
“I was four months old when I came to the Netherlands. My adoptive parents could not have children and the church helped them financially to bring me to the Netherlands. In addition to financial support, the church also promised spiritual help. 'We are behind this', was the message.
I noticed from a very young age that things were different at our house. When I wanted to play after school, it always happened at other children's houses. 'Take her with you. She can also continue to eat,' my adoptive mother would say to the other parents. As long as I wouldn't cause her too much trouble, it soon became clear to me. She also said it literally: that afterwards she would rather not have had me. I had cost my parents and the Church a lot of money and not live up to that amount. When I was very little, I had no idea of ??the impact of those words. I had been very expensive, I was told almost daily. I liked that quite a bit.”
white macaroni
“My adoptive mother often stayed in bed until half past eleven. By then I had already got up and walked around the house on my own in my pajamas. I didn't always go to school. My adoptive father would take me to work at a sheltered workshop. Then he said I was on vacation. Or a day off. In those early years, the school allowed that. Nobody intervened.