My husband and I returned from our first seminar, Discovery, on January 28th.  We had many feelings upon flying to Houston, most of them having to do with fear.  We also had excitement, but the overriding feeling was fear.  I think I felt we would be singled out as "being bad parents", because after all, we had chosen to turn over out parenting duties to outside assistance in parenting our "out of control teen".  In my  mind, this made us less than perfect parents.

         Upon our arrival, my first feeling was "we were not alone" any longer in our journey.  After getting over my own insecurities,  overcoming my discomforts, learning to communicate in a positive manner, and opening my mind to becoming and active participant, this exercise became uplifting.  Now, that last sentence had a lot of words and statements in it.  I have begun to realize this is an on-going journey and not a quick fix.  This is an on-going process and something we need to work on so our family can be healthy and happier.  There is no set time limit and everyone is different.

         We learned about commitment.  Our teen had been in Darrington Academy during the last year, before attending Cross Creek.  We bargained with her before going to Darrington, that if she worked hard, we would bring her home in 3 months.  We were told that only a very small percentage of teens can make the necessary changes in their lives in that short of time.  We were hopeful that our teen would succeed and be in that small percentage that makes the necessary changes in her life.  We were wrong.  We did bring her home after 3 months, only to find our teen had fine tuned her manipulations, dishonesty and her bad behaviors only increased.  We are committed to this program now.  We are committed to see her graduate the program.  I can only say, don't let outside influences be a detriment to you.  Don't let your own agenda get in the way of the health of your child and your family.  His or her life may depend on your commitment.

         Because of past misbehaviors, our family has had a very tough time with trust issues.  Our Discovery seminar, gave us some tools to start our rebuilding process.  It gave us a starting point, and we know we have a long journey ahead.  We are now looking forward to Focus.  The key word there is "forward".  We are no longer dwelling in the past, but moving towards a common goal, as a family. 

         We have returned home with confidence in our decision about enrolling her in Cross Creek.  We have a certain amount of peace in our home, our hearts, and when we go to sleep at night.  We know our teen is safe and take a great amount of solace in that, which we haven't had in several years.   This doesn't mean that we don't miss our teen, we do very much.  We just recognize how much we love her, by doing the right thing by putting her in Cross Creek.  We have given her another chance and ourselves too.