The Snowball Effect

I have a son in the psych hospital ... again. This is visit number 2 for him, #6 for a member of our family.

We finally had to admit him after Thanksgiving into a residential treatment facility because he was choosing to run away weekly, and then it became daily, and then he was gone most of a two week period. Each time he ran, he went farther down the food chain of humanity to find shelter until we had to protect him from himself.

The problem is that once we made that decision, it seems like the snowball effect has taken over. His attempts to improve there have their ups and downs, but with each cycle it seems that the problems are getting bigger. Now he was moved to the hospital because the RTC couldn't make him take his meds. Come to find out the hospital can't either. So we're just taking another trip arouund the merry go round to end up in the same place.

It's been going on with him and with another one of our sons since July. And the more assistance we need from the county, the less control we have until we feel like mindless, helpless pawns watching our sons go around and around and around, gathering more trouble with each spin around....

And I ask myself this question: If it is this hard for my boys who have a family who loves them and is committed them to make progress in institutions, would it not be impossible for those who have no family? What about the teens who are waiting to be adopted, hoping against hope that someone will be willing to take a chance on a teen? And if they lose hope, how will they ever be adopted when the records they are creating are reviewed by a potential family?

75% of teens who age out of the foster care system will be incarcerated, homeless or dead within ten years.

Why does it seem like I'm one of so few that care at all that this is happening? Why am I the one who sees their faces in my dreams? Why am I the one who can't sleep some nights because their stories and their futures haunt me?

How can we convince people of the incredible impact they can have on a life if they are willing to:

let go of their own self-interest

grab onto a troubled, family-less teen

and never let go?