Jane I am sure this was a very hard choice to make. But I am sure it is the best. I was in the same type of situation as your son. After my mother became ill I was passed around from family member to family member (lived in a total of 5 homes) because my father could not handle me or my behavior. After all of that I too was put into a children's home. I spent the last two years of high school there. I had a younger sister and brother that stayed home with my father. My father and I's relationship got better once I was not living under the same roof. Now that I have been on this program we have a wonderful relationship. He always felt really bad at giving me up to the state and putting me in a home. But I tell him so many times that it was the best thing he could have ever done for me. I was given the structure in the children's home that I was not given at home. I went from failing out of school (expelled from one school and kick out of another) to straight As. I was given wonderful opportunities that I would never have gotten at home. I went off to college and got a four year business degree and graduated with honors. I don't think that I would be alive today if it was not for being put into that children's home. Of course I wish back then they had known of this program. I have since tried to contact people that run the children's homes there in that state about this program but have been unsuccessful in getting through to them.

Best for luck with you, your daughter and your son.

Much love
Kari