Beyond Belief (28 page)

This is also in New Hampshire, shortly before my parents decided to give up the life they had started and the house they had just built, to move our family to California and dedicate our lives to service in the Church.

Rainbow Brite, pictured here on my shirt, was my all-time favorite cartoon character. I loved that she was a heroine whose mission was to bring color into the world.

This is in the Church’s L.A. nursery school. There are “value books” that teach things like sharing, imagination, respect, and truth on the bookshelf to my left. You can see that our education in Scientologist thought started at the very beginning of our lives.

During this time, my brother Justin would pick me up from the bus stop after nursery school and we would walk back to the apartment together.

I’ve always been a girly-girl at heart, even though I went through a long tomboy stage in order to fit in at the Ranch.

I loved my baby doll and carriage, and wouldn’t go anywhere without them for a while.

I cut my hair short in order to be like my mom, who I missed when I lived at the Ranch. Here I am in front of the Motels, the austere dormitories my fellow Scientology kids and I slept in.

We couldn’t keep pets in our rooms, but some roamed around the Ranch. I’m petting my cat Bella in this picture.

This was on a Sunday, since I’m not wearing my uniform. You get a sense of the remote desert environment we lived in here.

On a mini-golf outing with my great-grandmother, who I met three times in my life. David Miscavige, the leader of the Church and my uncle, is in the corner.

In my parents’ Vista Gardens apartment in Hemet, California, on a Sunday morning—the one time a week I got to visit them.

My husband, Dallas, and I had the opportunity to go to Australia on a mission to raise money for the Church. It was a great experience, in part because we had the opportunity to be more self-sufficient and independent than in our daily lives at home.