Episode #58 - Andrew Part 1/2

Andrew was 14 years old when he first came to Children of the Night in 2004. In this episode, he sits down with Dr. Lois Lee more than two decades later — now a community college student — and tells her how he got there.

Born to parents cycling in and out of prison, Andrew was in foster homes and group placements by age five. At 11, he went to live with his mother, fresh out on parole — until a violent night in a hospital parking lot sent him walking, then onto a bus that landed him in Hollywood. He was 12 years old, alone on Santa Monica Boulevard, when the street found him. For the next 18 to 21 months, he survived the way too many children do.

Children of the Night gave him what he'd never had: routine, responsibility, and a family. He remembers the kitchen, yoga on the deck, writing a song called "Throw Me a Rose" — and a Christmas trip to Disneyland where the fake snow falling after the fireworks made him cry, because it was the first time his heart opened up to softness again.

Andrew also delivers a heartfelt apology to the staff he hurt as a teenager, opens up about his sister, who is still fighting her own battle, and hears for the first time about the Children of the Night scholarship endowment — built for alumni like him, their children, and their children's children.

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Subscribe so you don't miss Part 2.

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