As told by one of our Life Support mentors, who has made a big difference in the life of this youth…
“We have gone to court with our mentee. We’ve gone searching for him at night when he got mad and left his home. It didn’t take us long to realize that behind that tough exterior is a scared child that is afraid of being alone. Despite his behavior we continued to persevere in guiding and directing him, trying not to be too judgmental. He did like having someone take him out of the home for a while. I guess you could say there were several months we just endured each other. I’ve learned that a child in Foster Care spells love as T-I-M-E. It was probably a year before we could start to see that the wall he had built up was starting to come down. Soon he was really listening when we would talk to him. Now he is even asking us for advice. Learning to be responsible is his biggest accomplishment. He realizes that he has to take responsibility for his actions. He is taking control of his future. After many failures in school we are celebrating his graduation in June. We are so proud of him. I believe we all would admit that we had feelings of hopelessness in the beginning. Today that hopelessness has turned to hope!”
