Mistie is thoughtful and articulate, and she has hopes for the future.
She is also six weeks pregnant.
“I feel overwhelmed, but I’m excited,” Mistie said.
“I’ve always wanted to be a mom, but at the same time, I’m wishing that maybe things were a little different. Like I had a place besides a tent. I have a case manager, who’s trying to help me get a place before the baby’s born.”
Mistie grew up in Salem. When she was 6 months old, Mistie and her brothers were removed from their parents, who were using drugs.
“I bounced around from foster home to foster home,” she said.
Mistie’s foster mother adopted her and two of her brothers. She said her adoptive mother was physically abusive and gave her a scar on her head.
“I was kicked out of my adopted parents’ home when I was 18,” Mistie said.
Since then, she has been houseless, off and on. Along the way, Mistie met her biological father in Montana, lived with her biological grandparents in Salem, and ended up in Portland after attending her birth mother’s wedding in the area.
Mistie is now 22 and wonders if she’ll make the same mistakes as her parents.
“That’s always been a fear of mine, being just like my mom. Or being the complete opposite and being such a softie that my kid gets away with everything,” she said.
Mistie has experience taking care of children. She is a godmother to her best friend’s kids, and she previously had a day care job in Montana.
Now she is taking steps to care for herself during her pregnancy. She started seeing a Legacy Health obstetrician, is taking vitamins and is trying to eat enough despite morning sickness. She is considering parenting classes.
Most important, Mistie is clean and sober and has been since before her pregnancy.
Mistie said she stays clean and sober by selling the Street Roots newspaper.
“I go to (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings sometimes … but I just want to keep my mind off of drugs, keep my mind off of everything else. I sell the paper. And when I’m selling the paper, I focus on the people around me,” she said.
Mistie sells Street Roots with her husband near Nordstrom at Southwest Morrison Street and Southwest Park Avenue. They were married through a pagan handfasting in July.
“I love the conversation and being able to socialize with the (customers) because there are a lot of people that are super sweet,” she said.
With the help of a pastor at a street church, Mistie has also gained perspective and has forgiven her adoptive mother.
“I had a lot of anger towards my adopted mom in the beginning,” she said. “But then I started praying, and I came to realize that maybe she didn’t know any better. Like maybe that was the way she was raised and that’s what she knew. So I’m not angry at her anymore. She passed away last December. It was really hard for me to lose her because she was the only person I had that was a mom.”
Mistie came to Portland because she thought there would be more opportunity. She has filled out many job applications, but the lack of a GED has stalled her search.
Mistie said, “I want to finish getting my GED and go to college … One of the biggest things I want to do is be a mentor for young adults and teenagers who have grown up in a foster care system. Because I can relate with them, and I can help them understand how to get through it. … I don’t want everyone to struggle like this.
“I mean the struggle is hard. It’s real out here. … People should understand there is a story behind every person that’s sitting out here.
“I hope that I’ll have a place and I’m going to raise the baby,” she said. “And that my husband and I can live together. I hope to have a good job eventually so that I can provide my baby with whatever they want.”
