Lost and Found in the Asphalt Jungle
My children don't have a neat quarter-acre suburban backyard. Yet they call our inner-city mission field home.
Kathy Callahan-Howell
October 1, 2006
When Charles was in eighth grade, he called my husband, Roger, and asked if he could live with us. He had previously stayed in our home while his mother tried a drug treatment program. She had become unstable again and his cry for help brought Roger to tears. With four children of our own, we felt unable to take Charles full-time. We created a compromise when our Free Methodist boarding school in neighboring Kentucky accepted Charles as a student. We told him that as long as he stayed in school he could live with us during school breaks. For the next five years, Charles managed to stay in school. Once he sabotaged his success and the school expelled him. He lived with his mother for a time, since he had negated our arrangement. Attending an urban school and living with his mom got his attention, and he soon petitioned the boarding school for re-admittance and was re-accepted. During this time, our children treated him like a brother. He was older than our kids, and our young sons Luke and Wesley enjoyed having a "big brother." Charles had only one older brother of his own, so he enjoyed having two sisters as well. Nora and Junia enjoyed talking to him as they grew older. When we picked him up from boarding school, he would introduce us as "my family," despite the obvious racial difference. ... Roger and I could hardly believe he was finally a senior, and we might actually realize our goal of seeing him graduate. That seemed unlikely when we embarked on this plan. The months passed without major incident, and our family along with his mother and grandmother, a lady from our church, and my own father and stepmother formed a cheering section for his accomplishment. After graduation, Charles returned home to our house and settled ...
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