As I discussed in my previous article, once Peter was on his medication, he became an entirely different student. The doctor started him on Ritalin and he was later switched to Adderall which seemed to am in agreement with him much better. The sole side affects we noticed with Peter, was a small lack of appetite in the novice, nevertheless, he was never a big eater to begin with. Following aproximatelly 2 years in that small East Texas town, our situation evolved and then we moved to the Houston area and Peter went to school in which the mother of mine in law was a counselor for the 5th and 6th grade. He was flourishing in this particular environment, which makes A's and B's as well as just enjoying life. That has been short lived; however, as soon as Peter hit Puberty (around 12 13 I guess) his attitude towards every little thing as well as everyone did a complete 180.
My wife and I'd been working on fine financially over the prior 3 years, and immediately after the start of 7th grade, we could actually go out of the apartment of ours and acquire our 1st home, that, regrettably meant having to advance to a different school district, where Peter wasn't familiar with the additional children his age. Peter had always been an extremely readily influenced child, and quickly he was beginning to wear the "gothic" clothes and his behavior as well as the school work of his began spiraling downwards. We tried getting him involved in school activities, and he was in band for most of the 7th and a member of the 8th grade, but he soon grew disinterested in that, he was becoming more rebellious at home, both with the husband of mine and myself and simply did not appear to have any desire for doing anything. As soon as he began 9th grade, (start of high school), we made it obvious to him the path he was on, was not planning to go on, when went on to produce the negative levels and not try, we had been going to be made to place him in a different atmosphere (we looked at military college, but that was not a practical option because of the finance portion of it), likely relating to the moving of his in with the grandparents of his. Effectively, both using defiance or disbelief, Peter wound up the first semester failing much of his classes, much like we had warned in the beginning of the school year, we relocated Peter to his grandparents and he began school in January at a new college.
Peter was a little dismayed at this and while the mindset of his over the school and the grandparents of his was fine, he was, hostile towards me and my wife over this particular change. My wife had to sign part of her rights over to the mom of her in order for Peter to go to school in this brand new district and we quickly, after about 2 months had the ability to locate a home in the new school district and move. Peter continued to go to my parent's house after school so that she can continue to both tutor and guide him in addition to have extra support. The doctors also switch his medication, this period of time to Strattera, but that didn't work after all, actually it seemed to help make him sleepy and had zero influence on the attention span of his. Peter would spend hours working with the grandmother of his on his various homework assignments every single day. Then again once the school issued the six week progress reports, he was still failing most of his classes. When we questioned Peter about this, he replied he just did not turn the job in. Evidently this was to be able to "get back at us" or showing us he controlled the situation and he will make us pay for it. It wasn't until a few of years later, I really believe he became aware the only person he was hurting/affecting by performing the action was himself, since it was not me or perhaps the grandparents of his that was suffering from his bad grades, it was Peter himself.
The wife of mine and I thought many of Peter's "issues" and rebellious attitude involved the non-involvement of his father, who I had previously stated, had left the state when Peter was 3 and had minimal contact with over the earlier 10 years. It was our belief that Peter's lack of desire in school and life on the whole was maybe due in part to his lack of contact with the dad of his. Though I tried to be a great step-father, I was not the real dad of his, and we both believed that it could do some good. Due to the point that I are employed in the "Court system", I had a colleague that was in a position to do a search on the web and provide us with a kick off point in finding Peters dad. We took a road trip one weekend, and a lot to our surprise, was able to find him on the second telephone call we attempted from the list. We met with the dad of his and he agreed that it was time for him to try and re connect with Peter. My wife warned him in case he was going to contact Peter, that he had better make certain he was in it for that "long haul" and not to call or perhaps come visit a few of times, but to stay a constant part of it. He agreed and also has, because the most part stayed in touch with Peter, including coming over to a few of people, sending cash therefore Peter might drive the bus to check out him and hence calling on the phone. It hasn't been a everyday or perhaps also weekly contact, however, it has been better than no contact whatsoever.
Because it was obvious Peter was not adjusting to life in a standard structured school, we talked to the high school counselor and chosen that Peter necessary to have a smaller, more controlled environment. There was really just 2 alternatives remaining to us in the school district of ours, one was really a school of last resort, while another was a "best prescription alternative to Adderall" college which presented smaller sessions (aproximatelly 20 22 students each), offering much more one on one mentoring, and a "no homework" policy. The school even enjoyed a zero tolerance policy, both in regards to drugs (thank God that Peter has never ever been engaged in that), and school work. Well of course, it now being in Peter's nature, he was going to try out this kind of principle and inside about 3 weeks of being in this particular college, they did actually suspend Peter for not finishing the work of his and also failing a class. This seemingly was the "slap in the face" that Peter needed as he was pushed to see the counselor as well as principal to go over the attitude of his as well as a change is the action of his was delaying beginning to come through. We additionally had the surgeon switch him to Adderall XR which helped in his attention and concentration. Peter managed to pass all of the necessary TAKS assessments throughout his junior year, so that was just one less worry on the part of ours for the senior year of his. We were hoping that Peter would "see the light in the conclusion of the tunnel" and make a dash for it in his senior season. Obviously this would not be the case, as he once again failed a class the initial semester and was forced to double up the next term. He apparently "got it" that second semester as, not just did he pass all of his classes, though he also was in a position to maintain an overall "B" average for the whole semester.

I do not assume that neither my wife neither I has been as proud as we had been on that Saturday morning of May 27, 2006 when Peter's name was known as by the school superintendent as a part of the graduating class of 2006. Peter is now functioning for a contract business at among Texas' biggest refinery's, working a constant 40 hour in addition to work week. I guess it just shows that with lots of work, sweat, pain, sacrifice and tears, all items may be achieved. In closing, I hope that this story can help someone who may very well be in a similar scenario, don't give up, it can happen.