Dear Maggie

Dear Maggie,

We hope you can someday understand how much thought and preparation went into this decision to allow you to go on this journey into the wilderness BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU.  This is going to be a fantastic opportunity for you to blossom into the beautiful young lady we know is in there….you just need some extra fertilizer and being with this group is going to do that for you!  We just know it!  I (mommie) found this prayer for you, Mags:  Be the gardener of my soul.  “Spirit of the living God, be the gardener of my soul.  For so long I have been waiting, silent, and still---experiencing a winter of the soul.  But now, in the strong name of Jesus Christ, I dare ask:  Clear away the dead growth of the past, Break up the hard clods of custom and routine, Stir in the rich compost of vision and challenge, Bury deep in my soul the implanted Word, Cultivate and water and tend my heart, Until new life buds and opens and flowers.  Amen”.  Allow new growth Maggie.  Keep it in your heart and mind that we are very proud of you.  We are so blessed to have the resources to be able to give you this incredible experience.  It is not going to be easy.  You will be walking in the wilderness….but you will not be alone.  We will be thinking of you every day!  Your church family will be thinking of you everyday!  Close your eyes every night and you will see us smiling at you and holding you and kissing you on your forehead.  We love you so much!  Remember:  You is kind. You is smart. You is important.  You are going to be walking on Holy Ground on this journey, believe me- angels are with you.  Allow God to do His work!  You might not understand why you are there at first….you might be really angry, sad, and confused.  But this is all part of the plan.  You need to figure things out on your own and get to the point when you have your own strength and wisdom to rely on, to learn to manage yourself.  Keep your sense of humor!  You have a wonderful ability to see funny things.  Don’t let darkness cloud that sense of humor!  Don’t let that anxiety paralyze you!  Take on challenges head on and come out happy on the other side.  It feels so good to feel happy and feel good about accomplishments.  When you are faced with a challenge that you think you cannot do….remember the dive saying “heave and believe!”  You finally did that inward and you didn’t eat it!  AND, you cried because you were SO happy!  We hope you cry often on this journey because you are so happy that you did something that you thought was scary or impossible.  I (mommie) have been listening to Michael Buble (I wish I could get that cute little thing above the e) a lot lately because, yes….I know this is a surprise to you…BUT, I LOVE him!  SO, there is a song he sings that I love….and it reminds me of you and this journey.  Here are the best words of the song:  (I wish I could sing it for you right now …and this is the reason I played it for you in the car that day…I hope you can hear me singing..)

“You are not alone, I'm always there with you, And we'll get lost together.  Until the light comes pouring through.  It's when you feel like you're done. And the darkness has won.  Babe, you're not lost.  When your world's crashing down.  And you can't bear the cross.  I said, babe, you're not lost.  Life can show no mercy.  It can tear your soul apart.  It can make you feel like you've gone crazy but you're not.  Things have seemed to change
There's one thing that's still the same.  In my heart you have remained.  And we can fly fly fly away..”

So, Mags!  We love you!  We love you SO much we have not given up on you.  We believe in your heart (to coin a phrase from a wise boy we both know)!  We believe this is going to make a big difference in your lifetime happiness and ability to be a successful person in life.  It is intended to stretch you….it is intended to make you think…it is intended to help you do the work you need to do on yourself….to be more aware of you and how you impact others.  How you impact yourself and how you impact your friends and family.  We know one thing is for certain and that is: you will come out of there more appreciative of your life, family, friends and the home you live in.  We hope you will also appreciate how lucky you are in so many ways.  You have so many wonderful qualities-- we hope you allow this journey to help you develop them.  We hope you learn to accept things you cannot change.  We hope you learn to ignore things that are insignificant (like others singing, whistling, or talking when you don’t want them to!  Jes’ sayin’!)  We hope you learn that sharing things (like books) and feelings with others is one of the most incredible feelings you will ever have.  Sharing IS caring, and solid relationships with friends and family are hard work and require a lot of sharing (we don’t mean ONLY feelings, we mean things,too). And, a relationship with a sibling is the best thing you can ever have, if you learn to enjoy it and cultivate it!  All relationships are very valuable.  AND, relationships will get you through difficult times, but it is up to you to do YOUR part!  These are some struggles we see you have and reasons we felt this program was what you need:

*Anxiety of new experiences. You tend to be rigid and inflexible when you are required to get out of your comfort zone. And most things are out of your comfort zone.

*Anxiety & awkward behavior in social situations. You are unable to recognize and act upon subtleties in the typical social environment. You choose isolation and social withdrawal due to your discomfort.

*Escalation & overreaction to minor events. You are overwhelmed by ordinary tasks and unable to initiate the first step and frequently just shut down. Your overreaction often leads to frustration and impulsive anger.  (example: tutoring with dad)

*Lack of motivation & initiative to reach your potential and achieve goals. You can be apathetic and you often unreasonably procrastinate. You choose not to take total responsibility for tasks. (example: learning a “new” dive, doing your chores)

*Obsessing about negative emotions. You tend to down play your successes and achievements. You choose not to participate in activities because you pre-determine a negative outcome. You automatically assume negative feelings from others toward yourself.

*Intense feelings of inadequacy & insecurity. Your low self-esteem does not allow you to visualize your true potential and acknowledge your successes.

We have tremendous hope that attending this program will help you overcome these life limiting behaviors and enable you to learn to deal with them in a more constructive manner. We sincerely wish that you will desire to become comfortable with all the new life opportunities before you.  During your time at the program we hope you are serious about this opportunity and work hard to achieve positive benefits for the rest for your life. We too will be doing our assigned work. You need to know that we love you unconditionally. No matter what choices you make in life you will always have our love and support. Our sincere wish for you is to have a self-fulfilling life of independence. We are not interested in making major changes to who you are but to have you learn to adjust some behaviors and habits and bring contentment and fulfillment to your life in the future.

Never give up on yourself.  We have not given up on YOU!  Know that we love you always.

All our love and smiles,

Mom & Dad