A Crystal River teenager draws on her experience going from foster care to adoption for an award-winning essay.
By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published June 2, 2003
[Times photo: Stephen Coddington]
"It wasn't easy to write," Ashley Rhodes-Courter, 17, says of her essay.
CRYSTAL RIVER - Ashley Rhodes-Courter endured years of abuse in the state's foster care system before being adopted into a nurturing home.
She decided to draw on those experiences when entering a national writing contest.
Her essay Three Little Words, describes the emotions swirling through her mind during her adoption hearing, which was videotaped by a family member.
It was one of 3,000 essays submitted to a New York Times Magazine writing and photography contest for high school students.
Sunday, it was announced she had won the writing contest. The award comes with a $1,000 prize.
The three little words were: "I guess so," her noncommittal reply to the judge who asked if she wanted the adoption to become official.
The adoption wasn't a happy moment because she had seen others adopted, only to return when they became too disruptive for their parents to handle. She feared everything would change once the papers were signed.
"I just wanted to tell the truth," she said. "It wasn't easy to write, but it allowed me to express those thoughts in very real terms."
In praising her work, the judges said the "powerful essay describes the moment that her torturous path through foster care ended and her life with her new family began."
"I was absolutely ecstatic," Ashley said about winning the contest. "It's one of the biggest honors and privileges of my life."
Ashley, 17, is a student at Crystal River High, where she takes dual-enrollment courses that also give her college credits. She'll be a senior at Crystal River High in the fall and later plans to attend the University of Central Florida.
Her life now, with her parents Philip Ray and Gay Courter, is filled with things many teens take for granted, such as phones, a well-stocked refrigerator, an after-school job and sleepovers with friends.
Before her adoption in 1998, it was a different story.
She was taken into state custody in 1989 at age 3 from a mother who abused drugs. Over the next decade she spent time in 13 foster homes. She eventually was placed into a foster home operated by Charles and Marjorie Moss, where, she said, she was mistreated.
"I was beaten with a paddle, denied food, forced to stand in awkward positions, swallow hot sauce and run laps in the blistering sun," she wrote in her essay.
She filed a lawsuit against the Department of Children and Families employees who handled her case, contending the agency knowingly placed her into dangerous homes. The suit, filed in Hillsborough Circuit Court, was recently settled, she said.
Her adoptive mother recalls the adoption hearing was an emotional day.
"I kissed her on the cheek and she wiped the spot with her hand, as if to rub it off," Courter said.
This isn't the first time Ashley has drawn upon her foster care experience to win an essay contest. In October 2000, her essay about how the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone affected her life won her a trip to New York City to meet author J.K. Rowling and to appear on NBC's Today show.
"She's also a national-level public speaker on foster care and adoptions," Courter said. "She's spoken to Congress and been to the White House. That's one reason why she wants to go to the University of Central Florida, which is in Orlando, where they have lots of potential convention audiences for her speaking career."
