Felicia, thank you for this wonderful news! Yes, it does give me hope.
My son is ten years older than yours, however, it doesn't matter, these estranged sons and daughters of ours are in God's hands, and God will help us to accept our situations, if they reconcile with us or not. Your news is very encouraging to those of us that are still waiting for a positive outcome like yours. Thanks for sharing this wonderful news with us.
By the way..if that's your son on your profile picture..he is a smart looking young man for sure, with a wonderful smile, which I'm sure you are so thankful to see up close again! Smiling with you. :)

Mommastears, I am SO, SO thrilled at this good news to start my day off with! I followed your pain and heartbreak on another group and so I know how much this means to you. I remember the boxes of cookies you used to send too.

You have been through a lot and now God has answered your prayers. May you find peace from this day forward.

I will definitely keep this in my "Good News of Reconciliation" files for others to receive hope from.

Please do drop in from time to time to let us know how things are progressing. Often times the road to progress can be a little bumpy once in a while.

God Bless,
GuelsMom

Felicia..thank you for reporting this great news! I am encouraged and this gives me hope with my son, who is at least 10 years older than yours, but still need to ask God to give me patience for my son to reconcile with me.
Praise God for answered prayers.

What a wonderful story to read today! I am so happy for you and your family.

wonderful inspiring

I remember your story from a while back and it is so good to see you on here again and it is so good to hear that your struggles have ended on such a positive note. You sure went through a lot of pain just as we all have.

In your post you say that you have had many frank talks and emotional discussions about your estrangement. I would love to hear what he gave as his reasons for holding out for so long. Was it the girlfriend? How did he feel during that time? Did he give any thoughts as to what it was doing to his parents? What was the straw that broke the camels back that made him stop behaving that way? If you could take the time to share, that would be great for us here to keep in mind for ourselves.

Also, I admire how you held onto doing what your heart told you to do - never give up, keep on loving him from afar, send cards, notes and texts on a regular basis. I am also heartened to hear that during that difficult time, you moved on with your life the best you could while you patiently waited for God to work in his life.

Thank you so much for sharing this hope with us. It definitely gives a lot of us members here some hope and encouragement for our futures as well.

Love and all the best to you and your son and family now that is whole once again.

Many blessing to you,
CM

Thank you all for the kind words. What a journey this has been and it's an ongoing process, for sure. I guess the biggest catalyst in our reconciliation came after my son returned from basic training and no longer had a home with the family who took him in to cohabitate with his girlfriend (their daughter) when they were both 16. He was seeing a new girl,who is just lovely,by the way and out of necessity, they moved into an apartment together. It was shortly after returning a very changed young man from his military experience and discovering the difficulties of trying to financially survive in this world without a job, that he began to call and make contact. He began to come to visit. He apologized profusely for his mistakes and for leaving our family, and yes, for hurting all of us. He stated that he never really appreciated how much he was hurting us, although this I don't really understand. He has said that he needed to break away and be independent, but that he didn't know how to do it without completely breaking away. He has also admitted his immaturity and wanting to be with his girlfriend, have all the freedom he wanted and have no rules to live by. Through all of this, he never asked for anything from us, except for our forgiveness and that he be part of our family again. He hugs me every time he sees me. He tells me he loves me in person,on the phone, by text and by email. We have easily fallen back into our old selves around each other and his fiance' fits right in with the family. We still have lots of talking, sharing and catching up to do,but I really think there has been some real healing.


I would tell others here to not give up hope. To maintain some form of communication every so often just to let your estranged child know you are thinking of them and to let them know you are there for them. I prayed for God to give him the strength and wisdom to "come home". Although I was extremely devastated and was hospitalized for depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, I held onto hope that my loving son was still in there and would return to us when he was able. I eventually was somewhat able to move on with my life without him in it, although it was so very hard. Initially, we agreed to not discuss the estrangement and that allowed us to get used to being around each other again without the intensity and pressure of the topic, but as time has gone on, we've had many,many frank and difficult conversations about the time (almost 4 years) that we were apart.


I certainly don't have all the answers. Our reconciliation is continuing and is a day-to-day thing. Our family has been given a second chance. Hold out hope...always hope. Do not give up. I pray everyone here will reconcile with their adult kids and there won't be a need for this board anymore! Thank you to everyone for all the love and support. I couldn't have made it this far without all of you!