Josue's Last Day in the Casa

Today was a sad day in our little casa and tough one for me, experiencing the tough love that parents sometimes have to give to their kids. Today was Josue's last day in the casa, moving out to live in a single apartment. At age 19 he decided in February that he did not want to continue in school anymore. It is very common in Honduras not to finish high school until age 21 or so (if at all) and he has about 2 or 3 years more to finish. Masbely, the founder and director of the casa told him that he could live in the casa until he finishes school as long as he keeps going, but when he dropped out in February he was told that he would have to move out by October 1st, lots of notice.

He kept delaying the inevitable and finally when forced got a one room apartment not too far from the casa. He paid the rent, $60, on Tuesday and was supposed to move out this weekend by Sunday night. He kept turning down offers to help move and clean and was doing nothing to prepare to move all day Saturday. I definitely felt a parents frustration with a stubborn teenager. His plan was to move his things Sunday afternoon. Of course, Murphy's Law, which I don't know how to say in Spanish, at 3:00 p.m. when he was finally ready to start moving his things, it began to rain after being sunny all day. He said he would just have to wait until Monday to move out. Masbely was gone for the weekend so I had to be the tough loving parent and say NO and tell him he needed to move now in the rain and learn a lesson about listening to adults when they give him advice about not waiting until the last minute to move. No fun for me and not the way we wanted to see him go, very angry. Masbely had told me Thursday before she went to Guatemala that he would probably come up with an excuse to try and stay on Sunday but not to let him. Amazing how right she was. I understand he was probably just scared and trying to delay leaving the home he has been in for 10 years. It was sad for me seeing him go because he has always been one of my favorite boys who I liked talking with. He has always been one of the best behaved in the casa also and really helped to keep the other boys in line in the casa. We devoted our Sunday night prayer meeting to talking about him, our feelings about him, his leaving and prayed for him. I tried to enforce the stay in school message letting them know he was welcome to stay as long as his education continued so hopefully they will learn from his mistake.

He is living close by so we will still see him regularly. They will continue to provide all of his meds for him to take also but other than that he is to provide for himself with his job. Josue is the third boy to leave the casa after growing up here. Ricardo left at age 22 after completing high school and auto mechanics trade school. He moved to the U.S. to live (legally). Carlos left at age 15 for disciplinary reasons when he continued to disobey rules after many chances to change. Josue is kind of leaving for not obeying the rules also, stay in school, but he is leaving on much better terms than Carlos.

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So now Milton becomes the oldest boy in the casa at age 15 and I am going to have my hands full with him! When he wants to be nice, he is so nice, but when he does not want to obey the rules he is one of the worst. Lord help me!