Family Weekend at the "Treatment Center"

Recently I was in Ogden, UT at my nephews "home" for a visit during Family Weekend; I put that in Quotes as it is a group home for boys aged 12-18, it is a treatment center for boys with learning & socializing impaired skills... hmmm, does that sound right? I think so... anyway, there were 12 boys which is the max for this home and I must say it really seems like home!!! These boys seem happy and content, well, as content as any teenager can be :-)

This home/school costs 8k per child, per month, yes, per month!!! Many school districts pay the bill and many more are ravaging their savings. My nephew has been there for 3 months and we anticipate that he will be there until spring of 2009... There are 8 levels in the program and he is proudly at level 4 right now.

The thing that is overwhelming me is that these are only 12 boys that will be helped, the parents came from all over the United States to visit their sons, and I just got truly overwhelmed at how many children are left behind... What has happened to our nation? What has happened to our conscience as mother's? Most of these boys were first diagnosed with FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) when they were very small, these same boys were adopted by loving, caring parents and they are now trying to save their boys from the abusive use of alcohol by their birth mothers... Of course, there are other diagnosis too, but just the FAS is hard enough! You know, until this past weekend I had no idea what FAS was... wow! The stories some of the parents shared were heart wrenching and stunning, and NOT the beautiful stunning either!

My nephew is fortunate in that his mother WAS his birth mom. He actually suffers from Autism/Asbergers/Bi-polar and some other ones too... He takes medication but at the school they are working on EVERYTHING, even hoping to minimize the amount and variety of drugs that he'll need to take. NOTE: His mom passed away about 2 years ago from leukemia, so this was an extra tough decision for his dad to make... I commend him for doing the hard thing, because it was sooo hard; but, we are seeing remarkable, fantastic, empowering improvement! Staff did inform us that Level 4 is where the hard work really begins... My poor babies (i.e. my nephew and my brother) and yet I feel so positive about the school staff that I can only believe that it will be worth all of the hard work and the long absence.

I guess that for now I am done writing... I only ask that if you know a drinker that is preg-o please remind them not to drink~ of course (and sadly) the ones we need to remind are the ones that won't listen to us anyway... sad that we can't touch the ones who need us to!