Celeste Edmunds didn’t have much of a childhood. She had to grow up fast, living with addicted parents and taking responsibility for her younger sister Tawny. Their mother spent most of the day on the sofa, drunk, while her father was a musician addicted to opioids, due to a painful childhood illness. Her brother Austin was the youngest, but when Celeste was eight and Tawny was six, Celeste made it her job to make sure her sister got to school okay, had enough to eat, and took her bath every night.

It was Celeste who kept Tawny safe, who read her bedtime stories, who kept an eye on her at school. But it cost her. She sometimes put herself in dangerous situations to protect her younger sister. And no one knew but her.

Celeste loved her parents, and her parents tried their best, but through arrests and rehabilitation programs, they just weren’t able to care for their three children. Eventually, the state thought it was best to take over care for the children. Austin and Tawny were placed together in a family that adopted them, but Celeste was on her own. She was devastated, separated not only from the parents she had known and loved but being taken from her brother and sister also.

Over and over, Celeste had been forced to pack up her belongings into her black garbage bag and move. Even once she was adopted, there was no stability in her life for many years. There was only abuse, alcohol, and betrayal. Until one of those moves became permanent.

After so many years of being bullied, hurt, neglected, and used, Celeste finally found a place where she was home. She was valued, she was supported, and she became the first person in her family to graduate from high school. Eventually, she went on to find success, become a mother, and now she’s also the executive director of Richard Paul Evans’ The Christmas Box International, a foundation that helps abused, neglected, and trafficked children.

Garbage Bag Girl is Celeste’s story, told in her own words, and it is heart-breaking and inspiring. It’s a fairly short book, but the journey it takes you on is long and challenging. Reading it, I got drawn into the story, to the pain, to the desolation, and to the eventual triumph as Celeste finds the love she was always seeking. After decades of not being listened to by all the adults around her, she finally found the words to share her story, and it’s powerful.

This book is not for everyone. It does include descriptions of physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse. There is addiction and bullying, and a host of social workers and psychologists who just didn’t have the wisdom or the tools to help Celeste and her siblings. Garbage Bag Girl is a challenging book to read, even knowing that everything ends well. But if you’re up to the challenge, then you will be reminded of the power of the human spirit. Because through everything that Celeste had to go to through in her life, she survived. And she’s here to tell her story with honesty, compassion, and grace.

A copy of Garbage Bag Girl was provided by FUEL Marketing, with many thanks.