A sad but hopeful day

Here is the picture I made for Ryan to take with him today. For those reading this who did not get an email, I will repeat the news below. Keep him in your prayers as he begins this journey...


It is with a heavy heart, and lots of hope, that I write to tell you that today we took Ryan to Torrance to enter a residential drug rehab program. As many of you know, he has been struggling with drug addiction since he told us eight months ago that he’d been involved for many years. Upon being transferred to Mt. Carmel due to a series of bad choices at RBHS, we enrolled him in an Intensive Outpatient Program of which this was his 18th week. While we saw improvement in many areas and are immensely grateful for the tremendous efforts and support shown by the program’s staff, it was time for the next step. It is an 18-month program of which we will assess at Christmas how he is doing and if he will continue there. We will have the opportunity to visit him on Saturdays for family group meetings as well as write and talk to him as those privileges are earned. He realizes this is what he needs although he is sad to be leaving home.

Mark and I are struggling with the fact we may never have him living in our home again but know that we must do this to save him. Now it’s up to him and he was ready to go. While you prepare to say goodbye to your kids as they graduate, nothing prepares you for that at 16. As you can imagine, this has been a difficult time for our family. Addiction is a family affair. The youngest two have been very patient with the level of effort needed for Ryan but now it is time to focus on them as well. While his contact with those outside of his immediate family is not allowed for a while, if you would like to send me a letter or note I will happily include with our correspondence to him. I know it would help him along his journey. I will post updates on our family blog should you want to check in from time to time – www.californiaodonnellclan.blogspot.com.

Thank You to all of you – teachers, coaches, counselors, friends – who have worked so hard to help him over the last year. It is our prayer that this experience will give us the successful young man that we know he can be.