If this kid can do it anyone can!
I have an adopted son who was abused neglected and placed in the foster care system at age 2 and again at 5. He has an IQ of 75, and at 12 developed a full blown mental illness with psychotic symptoms. He went through psych hospitalizations, residential treatment programs and group homes. He was seperated from the family he loved and who loved him and felt completely abandoned. Yet now, at 20, he is a working, fully integrated, stable, and functioning adult with a full life. He has friends, girlfriends, a job and is generally happy. I have thought about the kind of sheer will power it takes to go through all that and not just give up and end up locked up somewhere. Yes, he had a lot of support along the path, but I promise you it could never be enough to accomplish all this without a no surrender attitude. To this day he is constantly working to be more independant and become the best he can be. How can those of us with so much more raw potential and capability complain? If this kid could succeed against such odds, I am convinced anyone can. He is my hero.
Thanks for sharing!
I really appreciate you sharing your son's story here with us. He is a hero! I would love to meet him and just simply ask him what it was for him personally that made him realize that he will be what he makes of himself, not a victim of his past. Very inspiring. Thank you again so very much for this - it definitely helped me hold my head a bit higher and shout NDCQ a bit louder today!
MMack
Thanks, He's a great kid
One of the hardest decisions I ever made was to place him out of our home and into residential treatment. He had needs that far exceeded my capability and it was becoming unsafe for him and the family at 12, when he fell apart completely. He couldn't understand that he was going there for his own good and not because he was being rejected. How could he not feel rejected with his history? He was angry and hurt for a long time. One of the best days of my life was when at 19 he was sitting with me in the living room hanging out and he said "You know for a long time when I was younger I thought you had abandoned me, but I look now and after all these years, and you're still here!" I am not ashamed to say I cried. I was always there, he just didn't know it. Always will be, to the last breath, because thats what Moms do. One of the toughest parts of being a parent is doing what's best for them, even when they hate you for it a little while. I think one of the reasons he strives to constantly improve is that he will not settle for having less of a life than others have just becasue he is different. He is determined to prove he is capable of more than people give him credit for. I encourage and admire that attitude.
Deborah Roberts