Child Abuse Awarness month.....my personal experience

April is Child Abuse Awareness month. I debated whether or not i should post this and finally got up the guts to. so I thought I would share my personal experience with it. I know this can be a touchy subject but please be respectful (no nasty or rude comments). I was abused physically and sexually by my moms boyfriend (to me he's all I ever new as a dad, I never knew my biological dad he left my mom when I was born). I was abused from the age of 3-16 or at least I think. That's the first memory I have of it. He was an alcoholic/drug abuser and had a temper. A lot of the time it was like walking on egg shells expecally when he was messed up (which was most of the time) he would go off at the smallest things. During part of my childhood my mom worked at nights and a lot of the abuse during that time frame would happen almost ever night. I remember one time me and my aunt (she's only 3yrs old then me) woke up and went into the living room to watch cartoons. We were living with his parents at the time and his dad (my "grandpa") had a magazine holder on the side of his recliner and there cat was sitting on it a broke one of the little peg legs and he (my "dad") woke up pissed and asked who broke it. We told him the cat and he thought we were lying so he punched me in the head. There was another incident.......I'm not gonna go into detail but he was doped up and had one of his guns messing around with it tells me I better not say anything to anyone it'd just between me and him or I wouldn't like what happened to my mom and other close family members. Like said this crap went on till I was 16yr old and couldn't take it any more. I was so depressed and miserable I finally confided in my aunt (the one who's 3yrs older then me). She ended telling my mom and at the time I was at my boyfriends(who I'm still with today) houses and asked me if it was true. She told me she wanted to talk to me in person. Apparently she confronted him about it and he denied the whole thing saying that me and my bf made it up to try and get rid of him. I was really upset she still had him at the house and I didn't end up going home till a couple days later when my mom was at work. When we walked in the house he was there standing at the top of the stairs. My heart was racing so fast I didn't know what to expect. He starts asking me why I'm making up lies I know it never happened,  what the fuck was wrong with me. Needless to say the cops were called he ended up taking off out of state to where his parents lived. An investigation was opened and it took 2yrs before he was brought to court and sentenced. The timing was terrible I had just given birth to my first son and had to go to court and possibly take the stand. Thank god I didn't end up having to but it was a nightmare some of his family was sitting on the side next to me giving evil ass glares the entire time and he (my "dad") kept turning around giving me evil stares as well the judge had to intervene and tell him to stop. He ended up serving a couple years in prison. I had to get a restraining order put in place so he couldn't contact me. Take from this what you will but please  make sure you talk to your kids openly and they feel safe and completely to talk to you about anything. My purpose for sharing my story is to help bring awareness to something I feel shouldn't even exist and possibly help someone. Please feel free to comment or share as long as its respectful and not rude. Thank you.