Hello all,

A year ago my husband and I, both retirees (or so we thought), bought a small home in the country with no close neighbors or children, and planned on "Snowbirding" to avoid the HARSH winters. After closing we immediately started rehab.  Thankfully we had one floor done and hadn't started the next when we got the call.  My grandson needed another home and no one else in the family could/would take him.  It was either us or Foster Care.

After hanging up the phone we just looked at each other in shock.  What had just happened? To say we had mixed emotions doesn't come close to describing how we felt. Panic, Hope, Terrified, Grateful we could take him and scared at the same time..  We told ourselves that somehow we'd get through this. We tried to prepare ourselves by imagining how our daily lives would now be structured I imagined Sundays in the kitchen, baking cookies together.  My husband bought baseball mitts and a ball.   (boy were we WRONG!) 

He arrived with hair that looked like a large dirty mop, he had sores on his body, a few cavities with one so bad it required immediate surgery, long dirty fingernails and dirty worn out clothes and shoes.  The rest has been a blur marked frequently by what seemed to be a demon taking over my grandson's body and mind.  In the first week we had to take him to emergency mental health services.

However, I am VERY happy to report that one year later this child can now; sleep in a bed, make the bed, dress himself in clean clothes he has washed and put away himself, Brush his teeth, go to school for the first time, participate in sports, and the list goes on as I'm sure you're all familiar. We finally have a routine that fits everyone, we are starting to feel like a family, and our new house has become a home.

I'm not bragging about the adults here.  This young man just amazes me.  His courage to move from all he knows, fly to another state, live with his grandmother he hasn't seen in person for a few years and step grandfather he barely knows. How hard he has tried to learn and how much he is now enjoying LIFE!

Make no mistake, this has been a difficult year! So much so that I feel the required sacrifice took something from me...,

I think I'm still too close to the difficult times to appreciate it fully, but I believe I will heal and someday be "proud to bursting" of the successful, loving young man I believe he will become.  Then I know I'll be able to truly say, it was SO worth it!