Happy Spring! I hope you are enjoying the rain, the green grass, rose buds, Blossom Trail, baby lambs and daffodils. All signs of God’s Presence and Power! He brings new life, change and growth and we get to see it all over the place! In the past 3 months we have had 9 young men successfully complete our program at the ranch and 4 other young men ran away and have not returned. We have also finalized 4 Adoptions into ForEver Families. Our challenges and our victories seem to come together on a regular basis!
One of our young men at the ranch who has been with us for 10 months has had some amazing growth in ways that you wouldn’t normally think of when you think of our young men in our care. He turned 18 in November and is in one of our Special Education Programs in school. He was very low functioning when he came to us. These are some of the things he has accomplished with us so far. He learned to tie his shoes, to swim, to tell time and to shave. He has also increased his reading level by almost 1 whole grade level. He has also had almost perfect attendance in school and received recognition and awards for his classroom participation. He has also made some mistakes but has been honest in admitting he did something wrong, accepted the consequences and not repeated the same behaviors. Considering where he came from, and how he had been treated his entire life by his family and in school, these are major miracles. How it appears outwardly is that he now smiles, plays, participates both verbally and physically in activities. He says thank you and receives help from his peers as well as our staff and teachers. Reunification with either of his parents is not a possibility at this time, for reasons that would make your skin crawl. We need a caring and patient Foster Family for him. IF you or anyone you know is interested in becoming a Foster Parent, we have free, no obligation orientations in our office the third Tuesday of every month from 6-8 PM in our office. The needs are great and the families are few.
Keep HOPE alive as we forge ahead together.
Thanks for your continued prayers and financial support. We appreciate YOU!