This I Believe…
By: Nick
About two years ago the strength of my family was tested when the decision was made to place my older brother in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. This program is an intense, year long foster family program that put an enormous amount of stress on my family and also changed the way we acted or even thought about things. Thinking back my parents must have had so much love for brother that they and everyone else in the family put their lives on hold so that the problems my brother was facing could be handled with the most care, and could have all the attention needed. The program forced me and my younger brother to abide by some the rules set in the program such as no T.V. , radio, video games, music, and other things that could have drug related references in them because they tried to keep the kids isolated from that part of their lives. My little brother and I didn’t like this very much and it affected us more than anyone knows, but when these restrictions became too much of a burden, my parents would think of ways to satisfy our cravings for those kinds of activities. My parents tried to make our lives as normal as possible during this period of time, just adding to their piles of stress I’m sure already accumulated.
When it came down to it I know my parents didn’t need to do any of the extra work to make our lives more normal, because honestly we knew that my brothers well being was more important than getting what we wanted. Our whole family became a team during this test, and when my parents grew weak from dealing with the problems that were going on all day we would be there to return the favor. The program caused these occurrences to happen quite often due to the stress factor involved. During the twelve months my parents never thought about giving up on my brother. This gives me comfort that my parents will never give up on me no matter what, and that is a priceless feeling to have with you everyday.No matter what goes on in my busy and sometimes extraordinarily stressful life I believe my family will always be there for me.