Every year my wife and I invited our nephew to visit us during the summer. Our nephew comes from an environment in which one-parent lives in New Mexico and the other in New York. In 1997, when the visit was completed, and our nephew was scheduled to return to New Mexico, we were advised that he would not be able to return home because of financial and personal considerations.

The options available were to send him to the other parent in New York (the father lives in an unconventional environment and has never contributed positively to the welfare of the child), or to accept responsibility and provide the moral, educational, and financial support required by a 13-year-old Child.

Why was this difficult? Primarily because we have never lived in an environment in which a child would be substantially affected by our actions or, our lives would be so influenced by an additional person in our lives.

Jimmy is now 18 years old and recently joined the Marine Corps.

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