It started with the death of his beloved grandmother. Then came the anger and resentment that developed into aggressive outbursts. Shards of glass from shattered windows and broken TVs served as visible reminders of his growing rage. Read More
To say that 19-year-old Mahalia’s life has been full of disappointment would be quite an understatement. Let down by her parents she found herself living in a less than ideal situation. At a time in her life when a solid support system and a positive mentor were critical to her development, there were none. All of this led Mahalia to have extremely low self-worth. She describes her life at the time as broken, reckless and ending. Read More
It wasn’t long ago that on a typical school day when sixteen-year-old Gabe should have been in class studying he was nowhere to be found. In fact, there were times when his teachers wouldn’t see him for two or three weeks at a time. Gabe’s truancy landed him on probation but that didn’t faze the reckless teenager who missed more than 100 school days his sophomore year. Read More
A few words commonly used to describe eighteen-year-old Changpiny include responsible, hardworking and encouraging. While these attributes are what define Changpiny today, they are a far cry from the characteristics of the young man who came to Omaha Home for Boys in the summer of 2018. Read More
When you look at a map, it doesn’t seem that getting from Omaha, Nebraska to Council Bluffs, Iowa would be all that difficult. Pretty much all that separates the neighboring cities is the state line and a winding stretch of the Missouri River. It appears especially easy to navigate from one town to the other considering there are two major interstates connecting the cities. Read More
Prayers – possibly the only thing that kept Israel going when everything around him seemed so bleak. Read More
"At 16 I was somebody’s mistake and at 17 somebody’s regret. At 18 I was somebody’s problem, being tossed from detention center, to group home, to foster families like it was a game of hot potato. At 19 I was turned into a monster." Read More