New Beginnings for Josh

Hi! We are Greg and Joyce, parents of our two wonderful adopted sons, Josh (17) and Sam (13).  Through a difficult journey of infertility and adoption, God gave us the privilege of being these boys’ parents.  The journey did not end there though and life has been full of challenges.  Our son, Josh, came to us having been bathed in drugs and alcohol in utero, which through no fault of his own, has given him challenges that he will have to live with the rest of his life.  Josh has Asperger’s (on the Autism spectrum), ADD, Anxiety Disorder, and learning disabilities.   Years of one on one attention through home schooling, professional therapy, medications, psychologists and other interventions did help, but as he got older, we found he needed an even deeper level of help. 

As Josh entered the teen years, his struggles became progressively worse until we came to the agonizing decision that we needed to find a program outside our home that could help him with the hole left in his heart from abandonment/adoption issues, all his various diagnosis, and poor decision making that was ending him in trouble. Josh in his heart is one of the most enjoyable young men you could meet, but we knew he was heading down a road that could end in tragedy.

God led us to an incredible place called Master’s Ranch in Missouri which is a Christian boarding school for troubled teen boys (As we checked into to just about every program in the country, we found out at least 50% of the kids in their programs are adopted! ).  Master’s Ranch gives their boys solid Bible teaching, schooling, vocational skills, and fun every day in a loving family environment.  Josh has been there (and loves it!) since January 2014 and has made good progress but still has quite a ways to go. The process takes time to change behavioral patterns and develop life skills that he desperately needs.

We have been blessed in too many ways to count, but the financial burden continues to mount.  We need your help.  Between tuition, start-up costs, $3,000 in medical expenses from a recent ranch accident he was in, misc related costs, and basic travel expenses for our visits, we are facing an expense of likely around $40,000, after a generous gift we received. We began this venture in January with $0 available for such a venture, but with a knowledge and faith that this is exactly where God wants him to be, trusting Him to provide.  We continue to cut, save, work small jobs, sell things around our home, but the time Josh is in the program is mostly paid by incurring debt.  God has been faithful, but we also know He uses people in the process.  Thank you for considering partnering with us in a financial way for Josh to continue getting help and completing the program at Master’s Ranch.   We will never give up on helping Josh become everything that God has intended him to be!