My brother, step dad and I opened Triumph Youth Services in April of 1998. I ran the proctor program for 10 years, then I took some time off to try and have more children. After 3 years and no children and McKade heading off to 1st grade I went back to work to help out at the group home. I officially started running the Triumph Academy program in August of 2010. At the end of September we were matched with Kian. I always say that God has a sense of humor!!! It is much different running a group home versus a proctor program but it has been a wonderful experience. This is my 1st Parents Weekend. It is a time for families to come visit, attend workshops and trainings and have family therapy. I will include no names or direct faces for privacy reasons.
Friday June 24th started with an intro by Sterling Lyman, a workshop with Michael and then lunch by Maddox. Next we had tours of the facility and meetings with the school teachers. We also had a young man ready to graduate High School so we held his graduation that day as well. We feel graduation is so important so EVERYONE gets a ceremony even if your the only one graduating.
McKade was nice enough and agreed to sing at the graduation. His first paid singing gig, he made $10.00 even though he tried to negotiate for $60.00.
My good friend Brian Berrong was our guest speaker. His talk was amazing and he motivated us and the boys loved that he included sports in his speech. I appreciate the example of service that Brian is in my life.
Joette is the Principal of Triumph Academy and she makes sure we keep our accreditation. She is an amazing woman who loves the boys and wants them to succeed and she works so hard to help them achieve their goals.
Making the walk for his diploma. Dal is next to Joette and he is the teacher at our school.
Diploma Granted
Parent Workshop
Our therapist Jennie doing a training to help parents work better with their kids. Jennie is an amazing woman and therapist who does such a great job with the boys.
Patrick is also a therapist and he and Sterling are doing a workshop to help the parents prepare for their boys coming home.
Our families were able to come up and spend the afternoon with us and participate in the outside BBQ and activities. This was the most amazing day!!.
Our friend Oscar came and did the outside activities with the families and he helped us all bond so much. Before he was done we were all in tears. I will never forget the message he left with me this day and how it will forever better my life for me and my relationship with my children
Playing Red Light, Green Light
Who would have known how much this game could teach you??
Us staff playing "Adversary's" trying to get people to fail. This is weird we have never played this role before and it felt foreign to me.
Sterling has a dog program where he teaches the boys how to train dogs for behavior, hunting, etc. The boys love the program and learn so much from it. My brother Sterling is amazing with kids and the person I look up to most in this field.
Getting the dogs ready to show off their skills!!
One of my boys loves Kian so much and his siblings came to Parents Weekend. So much FUN!! Some of his siblings are also adopted from China.
My favorite part of the program, something I never get tired of hearing, the boys doing Cadences!!!
Oscar taught us all the handbone while he shared an amazing story. None of us will ever forget the handbone. McKade was there and learned it and we now do it several times during the day. Now whenever Kian hears anyone start saying the handbone he starts to clap his hands and pat his legs and chest. Oscar thanks so much, Sterling, Bruce, Michael, Jennie, Ryan, Char, Sam, Amanda, Lindsay, Nikki, Brian, Joette, Dal, Patrick, Rob, Ben I could have never done this without you. It may sound cheesy but this weekend was in my tops of greats. I went thinking we would teach but learned so much.
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