Today was the Master Treatment Plan collaboration for my 15 year old son residing in a wilderness program. It is 100 miles away through winding mountain roads, and I invited a pregnant daughter of mine and her three year old son. They were awesome travelers.

I also took my four and five year olds. Both have lived with me for two years and really do not like to leave our property other than to go to Wal-Mart or church. Too stressful for them to crawl in the van, buckle up, and hunker down for a couple of hours driving. It peels off their emotional scabs, reminds them of the many, many moves they made courtesy of a transient birth mom and later via Child Protection Services.

When they first moved in with me, they’d howl in tandem on any trip longer than 10 minutes. Today they excitedly wanted to go on this trip so I decided to take a chance. Wrong move on my part, as the five year old barfed several times and reverted back to his infantile and fearful crying. We were gone all day, stressing him to the max, so glad to return home and see another younger grandson, I’ll be fortunate to ever get him to leave the farm again.

The awesome news is about how well my 15 year old son is doing. My gut feeling indicated he’d do well in an outdoor program where he could release all his aggression, anger and energy. He’s maturing, forming some new opinions regarding his feelings toward our family. Guess mama must really love him after all.

His “chief” there at camp is a much younger, confrontational and tough version of me. He has to abide by her rules, her plans for their unit and whatever she tells him to do. He has an issue with doing what women tell him to do; he balks, and he’s deeply afraid that the woman will hurt him, reject him or abandon him like his birth mother did. Later his foster mother decided not to adopt him, factor in yet another placement with a paternal aunt who quit after two months…his trust issues are severe.

But this program is excellent, just what he needs. I don’t expect him to be cured, but I do expect a great deal of improvement. He was very glad to see family members, he’s very attached to us in spite of his fears, he’s loving and affectionate, but also very violent, aggressive and angry.

I know this takes years and years and years. I know this, and I have the time to keep investing in him. At some point he’ll turn around his negative behaviors, he has a great deal of potential, and I look forward to a more positive life experience with him.