DECATUR - Child abuse comes in many forms.

One often experienced by children in foster care is being treated like they are not really part of the family.

"That's the most persistently negative thing that happened to me," said Kristy DeWall, a 29-year-old Bloomington resident who lived in eight foster homes in and around Springfield while she was growing up.

Some of those families relinquished her simply because she got too old and they ultimately wanted to adopt a younger child.

"You have no choice in the matter as a kid," she said. "You start to believe all the things people say about you, that you won't amount to anything."

DeWall will come to Decatur to share her story Thursday during activities kicking off Child Abuse Prevention and Sexual Assault Awareness month.

Pam Burkhart, project coordinator of Macon County Safe from the Start, said volunteers will place 387 blue-and-silver pinwheels on the lawn of the Macon County Courts Facility - one for each indicated case of child abuse in Macon County during 2007.

Bows also will be tied to the bushes, with royal blue representing child abuse, teal for sexual assault, purple for domestic violence and pale blue for Macon County Court Appointed Special Advocates, in time for a wreath-lighting at noon Thursday.

Other sponsors are the Macon County Child Advocacy Center, Growing Strong Sexual Assault Center and Dove, Inc.

"Mostly we have been preaching to the choir," Burkhart said. "This year we wanted to draw the public."

DeWall, who now works a therapist, said she and her older sister were repeatedly taken away from their mother, a single parent addicted to drugs and alcohol, the first time when she was 2 and the last when she was 12.

"I'm still dealing with feelings of abandonment and of not being part of something bigger than myself," she said. "I really want to help people in the foster care system or who are working in it. It's so important to listen to these kids and instill in them they can succeed."

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@herald-review.com or 421-7978.