Making a really tough decision...

It has been a really tough few weeks.. probably the main reason that I have not blogged. We have had some major issues with Big Al, and the sub-par choices that he has been making. There comes a point along the journey where you have to stop, evaluate and decide what is going to work best for your family. For those folks that never reach that point - you are LUCKY!

FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) is something that Big Al has and he will struggle with it far into adulthood. In the last few months, the combo of FAS and puberty hormones (which, by the way - are both awful, but combine them and WHOA NELLY!)has been pushing Big Al to the limit of his decision making and behavior. As parents with two other younger kiddos, we had to make a tough choice to protect ALL our kids. Big Al was/is basically out of control and nothing we can do will slow him down. Nothing - we have tried.

So, we did some research and soul searching and decided to send him to The Ranch for Kids in Eureka, Montana. This is a therapeutic respite facility that caters to FAS kids that have been adopted internationally.

Last week, the three of us made the trip - a very long nine hour drive each way. Big Al showed very little emotion or anxiety about being left there. And sadly, neither did we when we left him there. There was a major sense of relief that he was in the right place and would be supervised 24/7 x 365.. which is something that had been bringing our whole family down and exhausting all of us emotionally and physically.

While not the easiest of choices - it was one of the only ones we can make for him....