7While still a little boy, Alton Carter walked away from his violent, drug- and alcohol-riddled childhood home believing the worst life had to offer was behind him. He was sorely mistaken. After surviving a troubled foster care system and becoming the first in his family to graduate from high school -- with a college scholarship in hand no less, he found himself at age eighteen, as so many young people do on the cusp of life: scared, lonely, and all on his own. This is the story of how he aged out of the foster care system only to have his college dreams shattered, and how he found the courage to face his past and dare to take the steps to the life and family he always dreamed he would one day have.