- The reason we didn't give John's location before was to keep his biological family from knowing where he was. Well his family found out when one of John's mom's coworkers saw him somewhere and he was wearing his teen challenge shirt. So we can let the cat out of the bag now. John is at the Seaford location. Yep. The one that's literally like 5 minutes away from my house. God has a sense of humor. You know the saying "so close yet so far away"? Well John is "so close yet... so close".
Because we didn't say where John was, there were a lot of things we couldn't say since it would have given it away. I think most people assumed he was in Seaford because that's the only one they knew about. Plus, my uncle preaches and teaches there weekly.
So now we proceed with some exciting updates...
- As many of you may know, my mom has been taking this whole thing harder than I have. I have a very positive outlook and focus on how incredible things will be when all is said and done. While my mom knows that too, she can't help but be sad that he and I can't see or talk to each other, and that he won't be here for Christmas, and many other scenarios. Well. About two weeks ago she got a phone call from a number she didn't recognize. It was John. So far during this process, we knew that I couldn't contact John but we weren't sure about my immediate family. Well, this gave us our answer. They couldn't talk for long but it made my mom's day. He got to apologize to her.
That weekend of pure hell when he came clean about the drugs, my mom kept crying and she told him that it broke her heart.
So while they were talking, he said what she said really stuck with him and he told her he was so sorry for breaking her heart.
My mom cried for a long time after they hung up.
-The day after my mom's phone call, there was a fundraiser dinner for Teen Challenge that we had tickets for. So, I got to see John. I couldn't talk to him. Just smile and wave from across the room. Odd doesn't even begin to describe it. (Ps. I have also seen him one other time at a concert that benefited TC. Just couldn't say anything.) The table we sat at was close to the guy's tables. And oddly enough there were no people sitting in the line of view between me and John. I'm not going to lie it was a little fun. We kept looking over at each other and giggling. Then we would look away and look back and see each other looking again. I couldn't stop laughing. I was as giddy as when we first started liking each other.
When the dinner was over my family went over and talked to him. And I stood watching from afar. Again, super strange. They got to talk for about 45 minutes until the guys had to leave.
This is my favorite thing.
While John and my mom were talking he told her that there was one thing he could never forget.
(It was the day after he told us everything. He and I got to spend some time together which was more like torture since he was going through withdrawal and acting like a complete jerk to put it nicely.)
He said one thing was burnt into his memory. I was just laying on the floor crying and crying and I wouldn't stop crying. He tried to pick me up and put me on the couch but I wouldn't let him. And he thought how could I do that to her? To someone I love? He told my mom he never ever ever wants to make me feel that way again.
That just meant the world to me. That day was the worst day of my life. I would not wish that day on my worst enemy. But it's the moment that I will look back on when this time in our lives is gone and be thankful for how far God has brought both me and John.
-The Sunday after all of that my mom and dad went to visit him. (Sunday is when they have visiting hours). Since we were at the color run this past Sunday my dad went with my brother. So. Now that you know all of that stuff. I can fill you in on a lot of little updates.
-There are a lot of family friends that go and help out at TC and they give us updates along with my uncle and my parents. They say that he is an encourager and an influencer, he has a heart that really loves The Lord, and he is a prayer warrior just to name a couple things.
-They have a lot of different bible classes in TC and they have to do homework too. John gets his done very fast. The first week he was in, he did a months worth of work books. Since he flies through it, he ends up with extra free time.
-John is going to be trying out to sing on the praise team in the next month or two.
-He started doing door to door ministry. Sometimes he has a hard time with it since people can be very rude and slam the door in your face.
-He told my mom that he is done with his family. He will always love them but he knows that they only will bring him down. They do a lot of counseling there and he was able to see that the love they gave him was just a surface love. The love we give him is unconditional.
-He has been working out which he loves. He has gained 25 pounds in the first two months. It was a pleasant surprise to see my thin little John getting bulky. Haha. 
See?
-Around his 6 month mark he will get a weekend leave. We will be able to see each other for the first time then. He's telling all his buddies in there that when he goes home, "I'm gonna take my girl dancin'." He's too adorable.
-Recently he has been getting migraines and he even threw up the other day. He has never had issues with them before so it's a little strange. Please pray with me that they would go away.
-He gets picked on by some of the guys who are less enthusiastic about being there. They called him "holier than thou" once and he did something dumb to prove them wrong. So lately I've been praying for him to have wisdom and common sense. He has always lacked both a little bit and I think a big part of it is from doing drugs for years and doing them again recently.
-Around his 9 month mark there is a good chance I may be able to come in and do some counseling with John and go through the things that happened.
That seems to be all I have for right now. But now that I can share more, I'll try to give updates more frequently. Thank you all again for your prayers. John has changed so much in just 2 short months it's going to be incredible after a year.
