A Nice Surprise

When I first started at Covenant House, they sat me in front of the mission statement and said, "Read and memorize this--it's all you need to know". Of course, I knew enough not to violate basic boundary issues, but when you read something that tells you to love a kid unconditionally, well, I figured I'd figure out how to do that as I went along.

There was one kid to came to us from a juvenile detention facility. He was a real piece of work--cocky, didn't listen, lied, just all over the place. I liked him immediately. He was in and out of our program for a while and always seemed to find refuge in my office, talking about all kinds of things. I used to fuss over him like a mother hen. He was in and out of prison for years and we kept in touch during those dismal years as well. He was tops on my daily prayer list, especially of late since I hadn't heard from him in a few months and I heard he'd been released from his last bid.

About 2 weeks ago, I arrived at work and staff told me he was waiting in the lobby to see me. Any folks of faith who are reading this know that moment when pure, absolute JOY floods a heart! There he was! We caught up for a long time and I felt like it was 2001 again when I first met him. I started my mother hen fussing (Where are you staying? Who are you hanging out with? Are you working? Do you have enough resources? Are you staying clean? etc.) He just smiled, received my fuss, and told me his hopes for the immediate future. My heart hurt a bit when he reminded me this was the first summer he'd experience outside of prison walls in 8 years.

I learned to love this kid without condition just by accepting him way back when. I didn't always like the things he did, but I chose to see past that and just love him the best I could. And while it may not have resulted in life changing behavior over the years, I think it speaks volumes that, fresh from the pen, he decided to come to Covenant House to see old Ms. Jen. Not that I'm anything special, mind you, but I'm guessing over the years some kind of positive mark was left on him by keeping that covenant...