Nicole Abrams is my name.  I am 21 years old and just getting my life back.

I was raped repeatedly by my father (who is now in prison for rape of a minor; he is due to be there for up to five years, but I am trying to get the time extended).  It isn't easy at times, but I have been undergoing therapy and mental health counseling.  

It is starting to make a difference.  I am now able to go out in public without having panic attacks or flashbacks; I know now that not everybody is "not out to get me".

I am learning to trust people again.

It is a slow, ongoing process, but with God's help, I will make it.  I know I will!

If it were not for God, I don't know what I would do.  Since I started going to church again and rediscovering my Christian faith, things have gotten a whole lot easier for me.  I have my church famlly, my own family, and my friends to help me over life's unexpected "bumps".

My father raped me from the time I was 10 up to age 15; I decided I had finally had enough, so I turned him in and the police came, where they arrested him.  He is due to get out of prison this year, but I am working with my lawyers (and the local police) to make sure that this does not happen.  He's hurt me once before: what's to say my father won't do it again??  Or, if not me, some other child or adult female??

I can't take a risk, so that is why I am fighting my very own father with everything I have.

I don't know what is going to happen, but one thing IS certain: as long as my father remains in prison, then I (and any other female) is safer than if he was on the streets, ready to strike again at a moment's notice.

~To be continued.~