[MeezDiscreet]

One of my supposed friends asked me one day when we were in the 7th grade, "So what you wearing tomorrow? The brown pants?" I know I told her something good but that really hurt my feelings because I thought "If my 'FRIEND' is saying this to me, what are other people saying about me?"

I think that may have been when I truly understood my family's finances. When my mom bought that doll for me, I was young and didn't really understand. And that's what I'm thankful for--we were poor but my sister, brother and I didn't even know it.

I knew my dad didn't get up early like my mom to go to work (he had his own engineering firm that didn't really take off until about '94) but I knew he prayed A LOT, worked in the church and taught Sunday School. I can remember being young and someone asking me what my dad did for a living and I told them "He works for God."

We also thought it was fun to eat pancakes for dinner but when I got older, I realized that was because you could feed a family of 5 for at least 3 meals on a $3 box of pancake mix.

People from church or my mom's job would also give us food--especially snacks during the times when we didn't go to school like Christmas break and summer break. I just thought everyone loved us a lot. They did but when I got older, I realized that they were trying to help my parents out.