Nancy took me by the hand and walked me into the house like I was a five-year-old child. Didn’t she know I was turning 15 years old? This was the third home Nancy was placing me in. I guessed she might feel a little sorry for me. The bright lights threatened to burn my skin as I walked towards a lady with curly hair and a smiling man. They called themselves Allie and Alex. After Nancy completed the foster (寄养的) process with them, Allie and Alex took me to their home. This time, there were no other foster children and no other biological children.

Over the next few weeks, Allie, Alex, and I fell into quite a nice routine. Allie would make pancakes for breakfast, or Alex would fry some eggs. They sang a lot, and even danced as they cooked. And they always seemed to be full of energy and happiness. They must have just bought the house because, on most weekends, we were painting a living room yellow or painting a coffee table brown.

But I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. When would they start threatening a loss of pancakes if I didn’t mow (修剪) the lawn? When would the eggs be replaced with unidentifiable food because they didn’t feel like cooking in the morning? However, it never happened. They kept cooking, singing, and dancing like a couple of happy fools. “Maybe this is where I belong,” I told myself.

It was a Saturday afternoon when Allie decided it was time to paint the fireplace white. First, we cleaned the dirty old fireplace, and then we pulled the burnt wood out. Suddenly, we noticed a tiny treasure box. We looked at each other in excitement. Allie actually said, “I wonder if a fairy has left it!” While judging her to be such a silly woman, I couldn’t help but laugh and felt a little closer to her. We looked at each other and wondered what would be inside the box. Would there be something valuable like a golden ring?

Looking up at the black sky with shining stars, I smiled. The next morning, my Tathra Surf Lifesaving Club teammates and I would begin the first leg (赛程) of the George Bass Surfboat Marathon — the longest and toughest surfboat race in the world.

Over seven days and seven legs, we’d row 190km down the NSW coast, starting at Corrigan’s Beach in Batemans Bay and ending in Cocora Beach, Eden.

It was a competition my 10 teammates and I had been training two years for. At dawn each morning, including Christmas Day, we’d been straight into the boat and out on the water. For the last six months we’d added in gym sessions, too.

Surf clubs from all over Australia had come to compete. When our turn came to set off, we readied our boat. “We can do this, ladies,” I cheered.

On the water, we gave it everything we had. My aching muscles screamed at me to stop, but I pushed through. After two-and-a-half hours, we crossed the line first and won that leg. Over the next three days, we won another two and lost one. With three of four wins in the bag, on the fifth day we were hopeful. We only needed one more win to secure the marathon.

Our surfboat marathon win was so close — then disaster struck! When we made our way back to the shoreline, the water became aggressively rough. It was nothing we hadn’t rowed through before, so we kept going. But the boat started to shake and suddenly, it turned side-on and one by one we leapt off the boat, me included. Seconds later, the 300kg surfboat suddenly slammed on top of me. My body immediately went numb (麻木).

Emergency doctors raced over. It was decided, due to the severity of my injuries, I should be airlifted to hospital. I was taken to Canberra where I underwent tests, including CT scans, whose results showed I had a spinal (颈椎) injury. I received an operation. When I woke up, the surgeon visited. “We’ve inserted metal plates to put your back together,” he said. “We’ll remove them in about six months.”