HOPE - My UP Word for 2015

Sometime during the Spring of 2014 I almost lost my HOPE.  I was tired of all the chasing our rebellious son all over town.  I was tired of the daily catastrophes to resolve.  I was tired of asking every day - "What do we do now?" 

I literally threw my hands up in the air one day while chatting with a friend and said I give up.  All of this mess is out of my hands.  I give it up to God.  I will search for help no more.  I will chase no more.  I will pray.  I will stop asking that question every day.  It's all up to God and my husband.

One of our boys had started done the spinning out of control path of school skipping, casual drug use, curfew breaking, brushes with the law, and breaking every family rule you can think of or haven't yet.  We had tried family counseling, pastoral counseling, a big brother mentor, revision of family rules, new school situation, taking away this, taking away that, parenting seminars, books, web pages of advice, extending our time on furlough, and much prayer.  We visited therapeutic schools and were ever closer to the drastic decision to send our boy to one. The biggest thing holding us back was cost, guilt, and feelings of failure as parents.

It was hard.  I didn't always follow through with my decision, but I was getting there.  I refused to let a year go by in the States only to be able to say we had lots of fun chasing our son around town in the wee hours of the night.  We had to move on for the sake of our other boys. 

We had to have HOPE that God was in control, and that HE would work it all out.

God indeed made a way for our boy to be accepted into a therapeutic boarding school in November.  It took a lot of phone calls and work.  Hands on stuff.  But working together with my husband and with God's divine leading showing us the way to go. 

My theme word for this year is  HOPE.  I have great hope the God will use the time that our son is away at school to work a miracle in his heart and give him a fresh start on adult life.  Over the course of this year I plan to write more about our experiences.  I am ready and willing to share more personally with other parents in need by email. 

Our story is not yet finished. We don' know how the last chapter will end.  But we are thankful to have passed the roughest patch in the road and to still be moving along.

Christmas 2014

Hopeful for a New Year


Glad that God is rewriting our family's story