INSPIRING YOUNG MAN

The Ultimate Blog Challenge is in full gear for day 9, almost a third of the way through the month!  The suggested topic for today can be either a story you tell of something you did or overcame, or a post about others that you found inspiring.  It’s a blog that simply inspires!  Even before I read the email from the host with the suggested topic, I already had my topic, and it was right on target with this topic!  So this is my blog about a very inspiring young man, our grandson. This is a time line that starts in 2015 up to the present, the beginning doesn’t start out the greatest but wait until you get to the end!

 

 

 

June 2015 – Zachary was removed from his home and placed in foster care due to parental abuse.   He was 16 years old, soon to be 17 in the following month.

September 2015 – Started his senior year of high school in a new town, with a new family and he didn’t know anyone in his class.   But he persevered.

December 2015 –  Hubby and I drove from South Carolina to Indiana to spend Christmas with Zachary and his foster parents.

May 2016 – Zachary graduated from high school without any parental guidance!  There was no way we would miss his graduation so we drove back to Indiana and his 20-year-old sister drove over from Ohio, making in a family reunion.  Alex hadn’t seen Zac for almost two years and how great it was to see them hugging and smiling once again.  We had a great high school graduation celebration in our hotel room, complete with so many gifts from my Facebook friends, people who I had never met and didn’t even know Zac.  They wanted him to know that he was loved, even by people who he didn’t know.

 

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July 2016 – Zachary turned 18 years old and he moved out of foster care into his own apartment, got a job and car plus reconnected with a young lady he had known before he left for foster care.

January 2017 – Zachary and his young lady drove from Indiana to Ohio, hubby and I drove up from South Carolina to visit Alex.  She had a major spinal neurosurgery in November and since we were going up for one of her follow-up appointments, it was prefect to celebrate Christmas as a family.

February 2017 – Zachary made a money-saving chart and he and Jordan started saving all their extra money, hoping to get a house in a few years.

 

This is a blog I wrote about their journey: http://themarthareview.com/sunshine-happiness/

December 2017 – Zachary and Jordan drove from Indiana to South Carolina to spend Christmas with us.  Alex didn’t have to make the drive from Ohio as she moved in South Carolina permanently in November, so once again we were all together as a happy family.

March 2018 – Another surprise, Zachary and Jordan drove down and surprised us for a few days in the sunny south!  We all went to Friendly’s, Zac’s and Alex’s favorite place to eat when they were younger and lived here.

July 2018 – Zachary and Jordan’s hard work paid off, they had saved and saved and put an offer in on an acre piece of property with two mobile homes and he and Jordan are now soon to be homeowners and all this before Zac’s 20th birthday and Jordan’s 18th birthday!

 

 

Back in February 2017, Zachary posted the above photos and message on Facebook when they started their Annual Money Jug for savings.

This was his post the other day updating his status from February 2017. “And now here we are about a year and a half later. Jordan and I are soon to be home owners this month both before 20 years old 🙏🏼 We’ve both worked our asses off day and night to be able to save every penny to be able to do this without a loan. I’m excited to see what comes next, but I’m so glad we accomplished our first goal x4, in under 2 years 🙌🏼❤️ Hope this motivates some of you to focus on a specific goal and tackle it head first 💪🏼 All it takes is focus.”

 

Sometimes things don’t go as we would like but Zac has always been one to take the good and the bad as learning experiences and not dwell on the past.  The past is the past and can’t be changed, but he sure is changing his future and I couldn’t be more proud of this inspiring young man and his sweetheart Jordan.

This is another part of Zac’s  interesting story:  http://themarthareview.com/sunshine-happiness/